Chapter 2 Writing for Visual Media

Chapter 2, 7th edition – RTV 220 What’s your understanding of journalism? Look at style outline What are the challenges facing the broadcast news writer? What are the differences between print news writing and broadcast news writing? Print news writing is written for the _____. Broadcast news writing is written for the ________. What would be a better way to express an annual 24 billion dollar increase in education spending? What’s the problem with saying “24 billion?”

Does it matter who the audience is? … write to a single listener or viewer Who is the target audience for KETV News? What can we say? Accuracy … Why is accuracy important? What is attribution? Why is it necessary? Less frequent than in print journalism (see p. 25) … necessary when expressing a source’s opinion … sometimes unnecessary … may be general (“police say”) … attribution at beginning of sentence … “says”

What’s a direct quote? Do we like to use them in broadcasting? What do we like to use instead of direct quotes? What’s an indirect quote? What’s another term for an indirect quote? What is the problem with using verbs like these in news writing? (See chart on p. 27) Look at “names, ages and titles” on page 27 … titles go before names … sometimes the title is enough (foreign leaders) … don’t start story with an unfamiliar name (top right, p. 30)… ages go before name … ages usually are not meaningful

Do we prefer past tense or present tense for broadcasting? Why? (page 31) Present tense is especially important at the beginning of a story Do we prefer active voice or passive voice? Active voice – doer of the action is the subject … Passive voice – receiver of the action is the subject If we are broadcasting on Thursday, is it better to say “the meeting is Friday” or “the meeting is tomorrow”? Why? (top left, page 33) If an event is happening within the week, is it better to say “the game is on January 22nd” or “the game is Saturday”? Why?