Broadcast Journalism – Techniques of Radio and Television News
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Broadcast Journalism Titles in the series Series editor: F. W. Hodgson BROADCAST JOURNALISM Andrew Boyd INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING David Spark JOURNALISM WORKBOOK Brendan Hennessy and F. W. Hodgson LAW AND THE MEDIA Tom Crone MODERN NEWSPAPER PRACTICE F. W. Hodgson NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE Nicholas Bagnall PRACTICAL NEWSPAPER REPORTING Geoffrey Harris and David Spark PRACTICAL PHOTOJOURNALISM Martin Keene NEW SUBEDITING F. W. Hodgson WRITING FEATURES ARTICLES Brendan Hennessy Broadcast Journalism Techniques of Radio and Television News Fifth Edition Andrew Boyd Focal Press OXFORD AUCKLAND BOSTON JOHANNESBURG MELBOURNE NEW DELHI Focal Press An imprint of Butterworth-Heinemann Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 225 Wildwood Avenue, Woburn, MA 01801-2041 A division of Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd A member of the Reed Elsevier plc group First published 1988 Reprinted 1990 Second edition 1993 Reprinted 1993 Third edition 1994 Reprinted 1995 Fourth edition 1997 Reprinted 1998 (twice), 1999 Fifth edition 2001 © Andrew Boyd 2001 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1P 0LP. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publishers British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data Boyd, Andrew, 1956– Broadcast journalism: techniques of radio and television news/Andrew Boyd – 5th ed. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-240-51571-4 (alk. paper) 1. Broadcast journalism. 2. Broadcast journalism – Great Britain. I. Title. PN4784.B75 B69 2000 070.1Ј94–dc21 00-064672 ISBN 0 240 51571 4 Composition by Genesis Typesetting, Rochester, Kent Printed and bound in Great Britain To Michael and Laura and all my students – the voices of tomorrow Our success is measured by the success of our successors. This Page Intentionally Left Blank Contents Foreword xvii How to use this book xix List of illustrations xxi Acknowledgements xxv Part One Broadcast Journalism 1 NEWS GATHERING 3 1 The best job in town 3 Personal qualities 3 Jobs in broadcasting 4 Radio 5 Television 6 The multi-skilled broadcast journalist 6 Freelancing 7 Industry training 8 Training courses 11 Degree, or not degree . .? 12 Getting a foot in the door 13 A level playing field? 14 2 What is news? 18 Proximity 19 Relevance 19 Immediacy 20 Interest 20 Drama 22 Entertainment 22 Different types of news 23 Checklist 27 Fieldwork 28 viii Contents 3 News sources 29 Reporters 29 Contacts 30 Newsroom diary 31 Files 31 Check calls 31 Emergency services radio 32 Politicians 33 Pressure groups 34 Staged events 35 News releases 36 Syndicated recordings 36 Freelances 38 Tip-offs 39 Hoaxes 39 Wire services and news agencies 40 The network 40 Other news media 43 Shared material 44 Fieldwork 45 4 Getting the story 46 Newsroom conference 46 Copytasting 47 Balance of news 48 Visuals and actuality 48 The brief 49 The angle 50 Chasing the contact 51 Staged news conferences 53 Beating the clock 54 Work to sequence 54 Don’t panic 54 Fieldwork 55 WRITING FOR BROADCAST 56 5 Conversational writing 56 Telling the story 57 Writing for a mass audience 58 No second chance 59 Confusing clauses 60 Inverted sentences 61 Plain English 61 Familiar words 62 Easy listening 62 Accurate English 63 Keep it concrete 64 Contents ix Make it interesting 65 Contractions 65 Rhythm 66 Fieldwork 67 6 Newswriting 68 The news angle 68 Multi-angled stories 69 Hard news formula 70 The intro 70 Placing key words 71 Feature openers 73 Developing the story 74 Signposting 75 Last line 76 Last words 77 Accuracy 78 Fieldwork 80 7 Broadcast style book 82 Clich´es 83 Journalese 84 Hyperbole 85 Adjectives 86 Quotations 86 Attribution 86 Contentious statements 87 Immediacy 88 Active 89 Positive 90 Redundancies 90 Repetition 90 Homonyms 91 Singular or plural? 91 Pronouns 91 Punctuation 92 Spelling 92 Abbreviations 92 Figures 93 Proof reading 93 Ambiguity 93 Fieldwork 94 INTERVIEWING 96 8 The interview 96 The interviewer’s skill 96 Different types of interview 97 x Contents A disaster story? 98 The disaster story continues . 109 Fieldwork 110 9 Setting up the interview 111 Background 111 A plan of campaign – the questions 112 Get your facts right 112 Fit the brief 113 Check arrangements 113 Approach 114 The questions 116 Winding up the interview 123 Being interviewed yourself: the Q & A 123 Fieldwork 124 THE NEWS PROGRAMME 126 10 From 2-minute headlines to 24-hour news 126 The bulletin 126 News programmes 127 Documentary 127 V´erit´e 128 24-hour news 129 Who does what? 132 Fieldwork 134 11 Item selection and order 135 ‘A fair picture . .’ 135 Second thoughts 137 Item order 137 Local considerations 141 Foreign coverage 141 Producing a running order 143 Fieldwork 145 12 Putting the show together 146 Winning an audience – the openers 147 Keeping an audience – headlines and promotions 148 Actuality 149 Pictures 149 Graphics 150 Programme balance – being all things to all people 151 Nightly News 154 And now the good news? 156 Fieldwork 156 Contents xi 13 Making the programme fit 158 Cutting 158 Filling 160 Backtiming 161 Fieldwork 163 PRESENTING THE NEWS 164 14 News anchors and presenters 164 The talent 164 Qualities of a newscaster 165 Women newscasters 166 More than just a newsreader . 166 Professionalism 168 Voice 169 Fieldwork 171 15 ÔOn-air!Õ 172 Performance 172 Presence 173 Getting through to the audience – rapport 174 Know your material 175 Ad-libs 176 The gate 177 Making a swift recovery 177 Corpsing 180 Relaxation 180 Fieldwork 181 16 Newsreading mechanics 182 Speed 182 Breathing 183 Projection 184 Emphasis 185 Pitch 186 Microphone technique 186 Using the prompter 187 Noise, noise, noise 189 Bringing the story to life 189 Fieldwork 190 DUTIES AND DILEMMAS 192 17 Power, freedom and responsibility 192 Power 192 The law 194 The regulators 195 ‘Independence’ 196 xii Contents Censorship in developing nations 198 The myth of objectivity 200 Impartiality under fire 202 Responsible reporting 203 Internal pressures on reporting 211 National Union of Journalists’ Code of Professional Conduct 214 Fieldwork 215 Part Two Radio 217 INSIDE THE BBC WORLD SERVICE 219 18 The best of British 219 The newsroom 219 Foreign correspondents 220 Bi-media reporting 221 The news conference 223 The stories 224 Accuracy 225 The service 225 Newsdesk 227 Newsreaders 228 Independence 230 The way ahead? 231 Fieldwork 232 RADIO NEWS COVERAGE 233 19 Story treatment 233 Newsflash (bulletin, US) 235 Headline 236 Copy story 236 Voicer or voice report 236 Teaser or taster 237 Voice report from the scene 238 Interview 240 Newsclip 242 Package 242 Mini-wrap 246 Fieldwork 247 THE EQUIPMENT 248 20 Recording 248 Principles of recording 248 Using portable sound recorders 250 Before the interview 253 Fieldwork 258 Contents xiii 21 Editing 259 ‘You can’t see the join’ 260 Unethical editing 262 Digital audio editing 262 Multi-tracking 264 Analogue editing 265 Mixing 270 Types of fade 271 Fieldwork 273 22 The studio today and radio tomorrow 274 On-air studio 274 Talks studio 275 The contributions studio 275 Remote studios 276 Radio car 277 Outside broadcast vehicle 277 Portable telephones 277 Telephone reports 277 Obscenity button 279 Tomorrow today 280 Fieldwork 282 Part Three Television 283 INSIDE ITN 285 23 Independent Television News 285 Getting the news 285 The editors 289 The producers 290 Getting the programme on air 293 Fieldwork 295 24 A story is born 296 Fieldwork 311 TV NEWS COVERAGE 312 25 Gathering the news 312 ENG (electronic newsgathering) 312 The outside broadcast 318 Getting the story back 319 Master control room 321 Fieldwork 321 xiv Contents 26 Camera shots 322 The shots 322 Camera positions 324 Grab action shots first 325 Shoot for impact 326 Shoot in sequences 326 Context 326 Sound 336 Cutaways 337 The line 338 Continuity 338 Pieces to camera 339 Planning – the full treatment 340 Fieldwork 341 TV SCRIPTWRITING 343 27 Writing the script 343 The cue (lead, or link) 343 Complement the pictures with the narrative 344 Writing to sound 345 Keep detail to a minimum 347 Script layout 347 Balancing words with pictures 350 Using the library 351 Fieldwork 352 COMPILING THE REPORT 354 28 Editing the image 354 Sequence of shots 354 Shot length 355 Digital editing 357 Editing videotape 360 Playing the tape on air 363 Fieldwork 364 29 Visuals 365 Stills 365 Film library 366 Electronic graphics 367 Titles and captions 367 Overlays 369 Fieldwork 372 THE NEWS STUDIO 373 30 ÔStandby for transmission . .Õ 373 The set 374 Control room 377 Fieldwork 381 Contents xv ONLINE JOURNALISM AND NEW MEDIA 383 31 Videojournalism 383 The VJ at work 389 Editing? 398 Fieldwork 399 32 Pushing back the frontiers 400 News online 403 Research 406 Qualities of an online journalist 407 Satellite and cable TV 408 Teletext 409 The computerized newsroom 410 And next? 411 Fieldwork 413 Appendix: Courses in journalism 415 Glossary 418 Further reading 424 Index 425 This Page Intentionally Left Blank Foreword More than 60 years have passed since broadcast news began to take over from the press as the prime source of up-to-date information about current events in the world at large.