Glossary
| A/B roll | editing process using two separate rolls (cassettes or reels) of tape; each cassette contains alternate shots of the sequence, enabling the editor to use transitions other than straight cuts between shots |
| Absolute privilege | the right of legislators, judges and government officials to speak without threat of libel when acting officially |
| Acoustics | the science of sound; the way sounds behave |
| Active voice | structure in which the subject acts on the object of a sentence; news stories should be written in the more forceful active voice |
| Actuality | recording of an actual event, or someone speaking |
| Ad | abbreviation for an advertisement |
| Ad lib | unscripted comment |
| Anchor | a person in the television studio who ties together the newscast by reading the news and providing links between stories |
| Anecdotal lead | a newspaper story that uses some interesting incident to start the story |
| Angle | an item of information emphasized as the most important point in a story; it may be a ‘new angle’, giving the latest developments, or a ‘local angle’, giving the point of relevance for a local audience |
| AP | Associated Press newsagency |
| Assemble edit | recorded material arranged in sequence in a linear manner; may be done on raw tape without previously recording a control track |
| Atmos | background noise or music, often achieved by a special microphone placed to get the best natural sound of the event |
| Attribution | the source of a news story |
| Audience | ratings the percentage of people watching a programme at a specific time; usually measures the people who are in the room with the set switched on. Household ratings or set ratings refer to the percentage of households with a set tuned to the programme |
| Audio | sound material |
| Autocue | mechanical or electrical device that allows television presenters to read a script while looking at the camera |
| Back announcement | a final sentence giving extra information to be read by the anchor at the end of a report |
| Back bench | senior editorial executives of a newspaper |
| Background | information that can be attributed to an unnamed source |
| Back timing | the timing of the final part of a broadcast to help the newscaster and producer finish on time |
| Back projection | pictures projected on a screen behind the newsreader |
| Beat | a reporter’s assigned area of responsibility; a beat may be an institution, a geographical area or a subject |
| Betacam | the half-inch video format developed by Sony and widely used in television |
| Bi-directional | a microphone that will pick up sound in front and microphone behind only |
| Blow up | a portion of a photograph enlarged so as to bring out the best or most interesting part |
| Boil | tight editing of a story done to reduce length or to streamline it by deleting minor details |
| Boom mike | microphone held on a long boom |
| Breaking | news unexpected events that cannot be anticipated, such as fires or crimes; often the event is still continuing when the story deadline is reached, and continues afterwards |
| Bridge | words that connect one piece of narration or soundbite to another |
| Brief | instructions for a reporter covering a story |
| Broadsheet | newspaper page size used to describe the quality press |
| Byline | reporter’s name appearing with a story |
| C-band | the frequencies used by most communication satellites, specifically 4–6 giga Hertz |
| Camcorder | hand-held camera and videocassette recorder combined |
| Cartridge | self-contained and enclosed recording tape that is slipped on to a special playback machine; it does not need spooling |
| Character generator | electronic caption machine |
| Chromakey (colour separation overlay, CSO) | method of electronically replacing a single colour with a second picture or image (usually the colour replaced is blue) |
| Classified | small ads |
| Close-up (CU) | camera framing showing intimate detail; often a tight head shot |
| Commentary | a verbal description of an event as it happens |
| Continuity | (1) the orderly progression from one programme to another; (2) announcements filling intervals between programmes |
| Control track | synchronizing signal recorded onto videotape to align the heads for proper playback |
| Copy | typed news |
| Copy flow | the route along which copy moves in a newsroom |
| Copyright | the exclusive right of an author, composer, pictorial artist or assignee to dispose of work for publication, performance, etc. |
| Cue | a pre-arranged signal to a studio or other programme source to start or stop |
| Cue-light | light on top of the camera to tell the anchor the camera is live |
| Cue pulse | inaudible pulse recorded on tape just before the start of audio or pictures; when the recorder finds the pulse it will stop and the tape will be cued ready to play |
| Cultural imperialism | the tendency for one country’s mass culture to be dominated by that of another country |
| Current | affairs see public affairs |
| Cutaway | the insertion of a shot in a picture sequence that is used to mask an edit |
| Dead air | silence during a broadcast because of some technical error |
| Deadline | the time at which copy is required |
| Delayed lead | keeping the most important information until later in the story to achieve added interest and mystery |
| Digital audio broadcastinga (DAB) | a proposed system for over-the-air broadcasting utilizing digital encoding and decoding that will not work with present broadcasting equipment |
| Digital recording | the storage of sound and/or pictures that have been encoded as a series of numbers; playback translates those numbers back without the noise or distortion of conventional analogue recording techniques |
| Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) | the transmission of a television signal by satellite to a small receiving dish |
| Dissolve | where one picture is faded out and another is faded in at the same time |
| Documentary | programme on a given subject seeking to bring out the facts necessary to understand the subject better; can be news, information or entertainment (music) |
| Down link | transmission path from a satellite to a ground station; sometimes used to describe the ground station capable of receiving a satellite signal |
| Dub | make a copy of a programme or piece of material already recorded elsewhere |
| Editing | the process of cutting, rearranging, adaptation and selection of material |
| Editor | the most senior editorial executive; in newspapers, the person legally responsible for the newspaper content |
| Editorialize | inject the reporter’s opinion into a news story; most newspapers and all broadcast stations only allow opinion in analysis stories, columns and editorials |
| Embargo | prohibition on publishing before a specified time; press releases are often distributed beforehand and then embargoed for release later |
| ENG | electronic news gathering with portable video cameras |
| Establishing shot | a wide shot of a scene, usually used at the beginning of a news story on television |
| Executive producer | the executive in overall charge of a radio or television programme or newscast |
| Feature | programme on a given theme or subject composed and presented according to certain techniques for print or broadcast |
| Fibre optics | the conversion of electrical signals into light waves sent through glass fibres |
| Flash | headline used by newsagencies to describe news of an extreme nature |
| Focus group | a research method in which a small number of people take part in a discussion on some specific important issue (used in TV and radio for audience research) |
| FX | shorthand for sound effects |
| Graphics | titles and other artwork used in programmes, newscasts and promos |
| Handout | free copy (a printed news release) of some event – usually put out by a firm’s advertising or publicity department; it is invariably ‘good news’ that makes the company appear in the best possible light |
| Hard news | daily factual reporting of national, international or local events, especially focused on fast-breaking stories |
| Headline | the heading to text in news |
| High definition television (HDTV) | TV system of more than a thousand lines, resulting in excellent quality |
| Human interest | news value element; aspects of a story, usually about people, that appeal to the reader’s or viewer’s emotions |
| Input | keyboard data (story) into the computer (to input); also, the data itself (the input) |
| Insert | (1) short item or sequence to be inserted into a broadcast news bulletin to form part of it (a recorded item in a live programme; live insert from the studio or an outside source into a bulletin or programme); (2) portion to be included in a story already written |
| Invasion of privacy | breaching an individual’s right to be left alone |
| Inverted pyramid | the organization of a news story in which information is arranged in descending order of importance |
| Investigative reporting | finding out information that has been concealed |
| In vision (IV) | instruction on script to indicate anchor or reporter should be on camera at this point |
| Jog mode | in hard disk, non-linear editing, reproduces samples of the sound in direct relation to the movement of the cursor over the defined region being listened to or edited |
| Jump cut | an edit in a sequence of shots that has the subject jerking from one position to another |
| Ku-band | frequencies used for transmitting some high-powered satellite signals; refers to the band between 11 and 14 giga Hertz; requires smaller receiving dishes than C-band |
| Layout | the design of a newspaper page |
| Lead | (1) a fresh introduction to a story (‘new lead’); (2) the first sentence of a news story |
| Leading question | question asked during an interview that tries to elicit information the reporter wants to hear |
| Lead story | the most important news item in a bulletin or on the front page of the newspaper |
| Leak | information by an anonymous source, often a member of a public body, which was intended to be secret (to leak); information obtained in this way (a leak) |
| Libel | damage to a person’s reputation caused by a false written statement that brings the person into hatred or contempt or injures their business or profession |
| Links | narrative linking or bridging interviews in a report, summarizing or giving additional information |
| Live | not pre-recorded; not edited |
| Long form | longer than the usual length for a news feature; a longer 60-minute plus news documentary or a documentary in-depth series |
| Master shot | extended wide shot establishing the scene and often running the entire length of the sequence; intended to be broken up during the editing process |
| Microwave | system for relaying audio and video signals on very short wavelengths |
| Middle managers | those responsible for the co-ordination of activities designed to help the organization achieve its overall goals and targets |
| Minidoc | a short news feature or documentary |
| Mix | the product of a re-recording session in which several separate sound tracks are combined through a mixing console |
| Mixdown | the point, usually in post-production, when all the separate audio tracks are combined into a complete final version |
| Medium close-up (MCU) | relative average framing for a shot; often framed from the waist up |
| Medium shot (MS) | wider than an MCU, often framed from head to toe |
| Mobile unit | A car, van or truck equipped to produce programme material |
| Modem | electronic device to send a story through telephone lines, usually from a portable computer at the scene of a news event to the newsroom |
| Monitor | check the technical quality of a transmission |
| Montage | an impressionistic sequence or combination of sounds |
| More | word centred at the bottom of a hard copy page to indicate that another page (take) follows |
| Multiplexing | simultaneously transmitting (via subcarriers) one or more television or radio signals in addition to the main channel; utilizes digital compression to fit a 6-mHz signal into a narrower band; in radio carries RBDS signals |
| Natural sound on film (NAT SOF) | location sound recorded on the tape as the footage is recorded |
| Negative lead | a lead sentence that contains the word ‘not’; to be avoided |
| News judgement | ability to recognize the importance of various news stories |
| News peg | the current event or central aspect about which a news story is written |
| News values | elements that constitute news; consequence, prominence, proximity, timeliness, action, novelty, human interest, sex, humour |
| Nib | paragraphs of news, usually in a column (comes from news in brief) |
| Noddies | shots of the reporter nodding or listening carefully, which are recorded separately and usually after an interview and will be used when doing the final edits |
| OB | outside broadcast: a broadcast originating outside the studios |
| Obit (obituary) | story about a person’s death; appears in a column of such stories and is written in a very specific manner |
| Off mike | sound directed away from the sensitive face of a microphone; it gives the impression of a distant speaker in a drama. In normal broadcast journalism it can sound wrong |
| Off-the-record | usually means ‘don’t quote me’. Some sources and reporters use it to mean something different: ‘Don’t print this’ |
| Ombudsman | person who is paid by a media outlet to critique the job it is doing; the public can complain to this person, who will then investigate |
| Omni-directional | mike microphone with a circular pickup area |
| Output | (1) typeset version of a story that is printed out of the computer; (2) in broadcasting, the programme or newscast |
| Package | report comprising edited interviews separated by narrative links |
| Pagination | number of pages |
| Paintbox | electronic graphics machine |
| Panel | the control, on a studio control panel |
| Paraphrase | this puts a quotation into different words, usually those of the reporter, to give a clearer or more interesting meaning; quotation marks are not used |
| Piece | usual journalese for a story |
| Piece to camera (stand-upper) | information given by a reporter on location while facting the camera |
| Plagiarism | the use of any part of another’s writing without attributing it; passing it off as your own work |
| Post-production | the third stage in the production process, when the recorded material is edited, sometimes re-recorded and mixed |
| Pre-production | the first stage in the production process, during which the creative, technical and business planning takes place |
| Production | (1) the middle stage in the production process, during which recording takes place; (2) the material that is produced |
| Profile | story intended to reveal the personality or character of a person or organization |
| Promo | broadcast advertisement for a new programme, or encouraging viewers and listeners to stay with the station rather than switch to another |
| Public affairs | programmes dealing with topical issues of public concern (political, economic, social) |
| Public journalism | the new approach to journalism that emphasizes connections with the community rather than being separated from it |
| Q&A | question and answer; interplay between source and reporter after opening statements at a press conference; also a form of story presentation designed to give verbatim query and response; the interview in a broadcast |
| RBDS | Radio broadcast data systems, a recently developed radio technology using FM subcarriers to multiplex a visual display (such as a station ID) and limit electronic scanning of stations to those channels with a required format; used extensively for traffic information to override the programme being listened to |
| Remote | live production from locations other than the studio |
| Rewrite | process of improving a story by making extensive revisions such as a new lead, a different sequence to the paragraphs or changing the story structure; a rewrite might even involve extra new information |
| Rough cut | first rough edit of a piece |
| Running story | one that is developing and constantly changing, giving new information, which makes it necessary to revise and update the story |
| Sampling | process in which a section of digital audio representing a sonic event is stored on disk or into the computer memory |
| Scrubbing | in hard-disk editing, moving the cursor through the defined region at any speed to listen to the sound being prepared for editing; this is the hard-disk equivalent of rocking a tape by moving the spools by hand in cut-and-splice editing, and the jog mode in electronic editing |
| Segue | cutting from one effect to another with nothing in between, or playing two recordings one after another with no live announcement in between |
| Shield laws | legislation giving journalists the right to protect the identity of sources |
| Short form | usually programme material in less than 30-minute lengths on television; typically up to 5 minutes for radio |
| Sidebar | a secondary story intended to be run with a major story on the same topic |
| Slant | emphasis or focus of a story; may also indicate that the story has a particular bias or over-emphasizes one aspect at the expense of other pieces of information |
| Slug | one or two words at the top of the story indicating the subject so it can be identified as it is processed through the newsroom |
| Soft lead | a lead that uses a quote, story or some other soft literary device to attract the reader |
| Soft news | opposite of hard, fast-breaking stories; consists of less topical features and reports that do not depend on happening news (for example, medical reports, entertainment stories, lifestyle, leisure, human interest etc.) |
| SOT | abbreviation for sound-on-tape; used on the video side of a split script page to indicate the tape has sound. Usually followed by the instruction, UPSOT |
| Soundbite | portion of an interview or ‘grab’ of actuality selected for broadcast |
| Sources | people or records from which a reporter gets information |
| Split page | the standard TV news script; the left side of the page is used for video directions and the right side is for the script and audio cues |
| Splitter box | device used to feed one input signal to more than one output; commonly used at news conferences to avoid a jumble of microphones by splitting the feed from one mike to all those covering the event |
| Spot news | an up-to-the-minute news report of an event that is happening at the same time |
| Spot story | an item of breaking news, such as a fire or air crash |
| Stand-upper | news story by a reporter in the field standing in front of the camera |
| Stet | editor marks copy for a change then decides to keep the original; it means ‘let it stand as it was’ |
| Sub-editor | journalist who checks, corrects and prepares copy for printing or broadcast |
| Summary lead | the first paragraphs of a news story in which the writer presents a synopsis of several actions rather than focusing on one specific angle |
| Super (caption) | title or caption mechanically superimposed or electronically generated on the picture; mostly used for the names, addresses and titles of people being identified in a news package or newscast |
| Tabloid | page size used to describe the ‘down-market’ popular press |
| Tag (outro) | ending segment of a story; often the anchor adds a line or two after a report |
| Take | (1) one page of copy; (2) one attempt at recording |
| Talking heads | discussion programme with two or more named participants in a studio, where the camera mainly focuses on the heads of those concerned; in radio, a studio discussion |
| Text | the main printed material in a newspaper, as distinct from headlines or graphics |
| Time code editor | a device that uses the time code recorded on a tape as the reference for editing |
| Transition | writing device that takes the reader smoothly from one aspect of a story to another loosely-related topic area |
| Transponder | one of several units on a communication satellite that both receives up-linked signals and retransmits them as down-linked signals; currently most satellites have 24 transponders, and digital compression of video signals has greatly increased transponder capacity |
| Two-shot | shot at a wide enough angle to include two people (usually the reporter and the person being interviewed) |
| Typo | typographical error |
| U-Matic 3/4″ | videotape format created by Sony in the 1970s, which revolutionized video news gathering; has since been upgraded by a compatible U-matic SP format |
| Update | a type of follow-up story that gives newer developments to an earlier story |
| UPI | United Press International |
| Up link | transmission path from an earth station up to a satellite; sometimes used to describe the ground station capable of sending a satellite signal |
| Vertical interval time code (VITC) | time code that is recorded vertically on videotape within the video signal but outside the picture area so it is not visible |
| Video-on-demand (VOD) | system that will be able to deliver entertainment and information to users on demand; will work in conjunction with a set-top computer storage device to hold programming in memory for instant recall |
| Videotape | plastic coated tape with slanted magnetic particles used to record video and audio signals |
| Visuals | visual element of a TV report |
| Voiceover (v/o) | commentary recorded over pictures by an unseen reporter or reader |
| Voice report (voicer) | details and explanation of a story by a reporter; a report in a reporter’s own voice – either in the studio or from elsewhere by phone or satellite |
| Vox pop | Latin vox populi; refers to street interviews conducted to poll public opinion and edited to give short comments |
| VTR | videotape recording |
| Web offset | printing process |
| Wildtrack | recording of ambient sound for dubbing later as background to a report |
| Wipe | crossing from one picture to another, giving the impression that one is wiping the other off the screen |
| World Wide Web | part of the Internet of computer networks; allows for the integration of text, voice and video data in the creation of various home pages of information, which can then be accessed by consumers |
| Wrap | finish shooting; also, the combination of three or more stories linked with a wipe between each and usually v/o’d by the anchor |
| Wraparound | news story consisting of at least two parts; an intro/outro and a centre portion reported by a second person |
| Zoom | special lens system with variable focal length enabling it to zoom from a wide angle to a closer shot and vice versa |
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