Contents
Media Use Is More Complex Than It Used to Be
It’s Hard to Measure Media Use
What We Think We Know About Media Use
What We Don’t Know About Media Use
Breaking News ■ Planned Event Reporting ■ Enterprise Reporting ■ Investigative Reporting ■ Special Segment Reporting ■ Features
The Morning and Afternoon Meetings
Writing for the Ear v. Writing for the Eye
Newsroom Computer System ■ The Slug ■ The Printed Word ■ Hyphenation ■ Abbreviation ■ Symbols ■ Initials and Acronyms ■ Names ■ Numbers ■ Ages ■ Emphasis ■ Pronouncers ■ Spelling
Informal Words ■ Contractions ■ Formal Terminology ■ People … Not Persons
Common Usage ■ Technical Terms ■ Definite and Indefinite Articles
Use Strong Nouns and Verbs ■ Avoid Weak Qualifiers
Says ■ Saying Too Much ■ Think
Voice ■ Tense ■ Clarity ■ Conciseness ■ Clauses and Phrases ■ Positive Phrasing ■ Pronouns ■ That ■ Time and Space Problems
Titles and Identifiers ■ Attribution ■ Quotations ■ Numbers ■ Race
Dates ■ Unintended Meanings ■ Editorials ■ Clichés ■ Sexism ■ Personalization
One Important Idea ■ Put People First ■ Keep It Simple: Subject-Verb-Object ■ Use Some Variety for Interest ■ Split Up Complex Sentences
Make It Clean, Clear and Concise
Make Every Sentence Count ■ Avoid Repetition ■ Stay Positive ■ Make Sense ■ End Strong
Hard Main Point Lead ■ Soft Main Point Lead ■ Throwaway Lead ■ Umbrella Lead ■ Delayed or Suspense Lead ■ Question Lead
What’s the Story About? ■ Say Something Meaningful ■ Keep It Simple ■ Start with New News ■ Focus on People ■ Focus on Local ■ Put Location in the Lead ■ Be Direct and to the Point ■ Save the Name for Later ■ Save the Day and Date for Later ■ Update Leads ■ Responsibility
Future Ramification Close ■ Summary Point Close ■ Information Close ■ Opposition Point of View Close ■ Punch Line
Why Run the Story? ■ Do You Understand? ■ What’s the Story About? ■ What’s the Lead? ■ In What Order Do You Tell the Story?
Handling the Basics ■ Will It Stand on Its Own? ■ Answer the Logical Questions
Make the Writing Structure Interesting
Within Stories ■ Between Stories
Does the Story Support the Lead? ■ Will the Audience Understand? ■ Use Humor Sparingly ■ Read the Story Aloud
9 Working with and Gathering Bites, Actualities and Natural Sound
Natural Sound as Pacing and Punctuation
Good Bites and Bad Bites: Technical ■ Good Bites and Bad Bites: Content ■ An Alternative to Traditional Bites
Working with Bites, Actualities and Natural Sound
Don’t Stop the Story ■ Don’t Repeat ■ Watch Out for Partial Lead-Ins ■ Making the Story Flow ■ Finding the Lead-In ■ Television Lead-Ins ■ Writing Out of Bites
Writing into Packages ■ Introducing a Package That Starts with a Bite ■ Understand Where the Story Begins ■ Package Tags
Conducting Successful Interviews
Plan ■ Listen ■ Technical Concerns ■ Make the Interviewee Comfortable ■ Ask Questions That Deliver What You’re After ■ Use Silence ■ Maintain Strong Eye Contact ■ Learn to Respond Inaudibly ■ Follow Up and Clarify ■ Maintain Control ■ Ask for More … Twice ■ Make Notes Afterward
Being Human ■ A Closing Thought
11 Radio/Audio: Story Forms and Working with Sound
The Words ■ Using Nat Sound ■ Listen to the Sound Quality ■ Putting It All Together
Readers ■ Voiceovers ■ VO/SOT ■ Packages ■ Live
Pacing ■ Don’t Outdate Packages
Planning ■ Crosstalk ■ Live Look
Working with Strong Pictures ■ Working Without Strong Pictures
Use Pictures and Words for What They Do Best ■ Use Natural Sound and SOT ■ Write TV Loosely ■ Coordinate Words and Pictures ■ Visualizing the Story
Use Meaningful Pictures ■ Today’s Pictures ■ Watch Your Supers
Strong Stories Have Central Characters and a Plot
Web Design ■ News on the Web ■ Constructing Web News ■ Online Writing Rules ■ Other Issues
The Radio-Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Social Media and Blogging Guidelines
16 Convergence, Cooperation and the New TV Newsroom
MMJ, Backpack Journalists and One-Man-Bands
News, Weather and Sports ■ Special Segments, Franchises and Features
Reporting Scores ■ Common Mistakes
Auto Racing ■ Baseball—Major Leagues ■ Basketball-National Basketball Association ■ Basketball—Women’s National Basketball Association ■ Boxing ■ Football—National Football League ■ Football—Arena Football League ■ Football—Canadian Football League ■ Golf ■ Hockey—National Hockey League ■ Soccer—Major League Soccer
19 Reporting: Seasonal Coverage and the Calendar
Solar and Lunar and the World’s Major Religions
Buddhist Holidays ■ Hindu Holidays ■ Muslim Holidays
20 Reporting: Specialized Coverage
The General Assignment Reporter
Attribution ■ Alleged ■ Misplaced Attribution ■ Cautions ■ Get the Terms Right ■ Top Crime and Legal Terms
Major U.S. Geographic Terms ■ Voice of America Pronunciation Guide ■ Major World Geographic Terms
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 ■ HIPAA ■ Hospital Conditions
22 Ethics and the RTDNA Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
The Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
23 TV Script Form, Supers and Glossary
Standard Anchor Read ■ Standard 2-Shot ■ Standard Anchor Read with Gfx ■ Anchor with Voiceover ■ Anchor with VO/SOT ■ Anchor VO/SOT with Package Intro
Names ■ Location, Date and Miscellaneous
Glossary of Broadcast and Online Terms