Broadcast Writing Style
Print/Broadcast Differences
 Print news is written for readers
scanning a page with their eyes
 Print stories can be re-read
 People like newspapers for their
detailed information
 Prints stories are written based
on word count and column
inches
 Broadcast news is written for
listeners and viewers tuning in
with their ears and eyes (for TV)
 Broadcast words, once spoken,
are gone forever
 People like broadcast news for
quick, up-to-date info
 Broadcast stories are written for
length of time: 30 sec., 2 min.,
etc.
Print/Broadcast Similarities
 Although the writing styles for print and broadcast are
different, the types of stories chosen are not
 The best stories for print and broadcast are also the best stories
in print
Print/Broadcast Similarities
 Reporting and newsgathering are similar too:
 identifying central point
 finding the best story angle
 doing background research, conducting interviews
 identifying best quotes/sound bites
 writing well
 adhering to journalistic principles of accuracy, fairness, balance,
and objectivity
Broadcast Writing Guidelines
 Adopt a conversational, informal and relaxed style
 Write short sentences that are to the point and limited
to one idea per sentence
 Present information in an up-to-date format

 Use present-tense verbs

 Round off numbers and give them meaning

 Shorten long titles

Broadcast Writing Guidelines
 Never put an unfamiliar name first in a story
 Omit a person’s middle initial
 Place the description, age, job title, and other
identification before a person’s name not after as
done in print
 Leave out ages and addresses if they are not
important to the story
 Place the attribution before what is said: “who said
what”
 Avoid pronouns: may be unclear who you are referring to
Broadcast Writing Tips
 Add phonetic spelling to ensure
proper pronunciation: Bear
County, Texas for Bexar County
 Spell out numbers up to and
including eleven
 Use numerals for 12 to 999
 Use “says” instead of “said” to
sound more current and now
 Use a combination of numerals
and words for large numbers
 Use words instead of
abbreviations
 Spell out figures, signs and
symbols
 Use hyphens for numbers and
letters to be read individually:
C-B-S
 Avoid alliterations or tongue
twisters
Pyramid vs. Inverted Pyramid
 The best broadcast leads are short: 12 words or so

 Broadcast uses a pyramid style body of the story organization: complete

story is written for time given, like 30 seconds

 But like the inverted pyramid, the story often puts information in
descending order of importance
Scripting Broadcast Stories
 Broadcast story “scripts” have more narrow left and right margins and are
double spaced for readability

 Corrections can be neatly made on script using block-style editing

 Much more use of electronic files these days

 Producing software makes script formats concerns less relevant

 (AP ENPS)
Writing the News Story
as noted at start of semester
 Elements of News
 Timeliness
 Proximity
 Significance
 Conflict
 Prominence
 Human Interest
News Elements
 TIMELINESS

News is what happens now, what happens in the immediate present or what
may happen

*What has already happened (historical and background information) is mentioned briefly in stories to
provide perspective and explain “why.” This usually occurs in follow-up reports when you have had time to
investigate the background.

Examples….
timeliness
 Firefighters controlling blaze at local post office late afternoon
 Five o’clock newscast
 Story focus = fire at post office, authorities on the scene, injury report,
damage estimate

 Ten o’clock newscast

 Story focus = update on blaze (how long to get under control), damages,
injuries, speculation of cause from authorities
  PROXIMITY

News Elements
News is what happens close to us - either
geographically or emotionally - so we can identify
with the event

“nothing’s going on…”

(finding news)
Examples…
proximity
Stories that happen
in our communities
are of interest
because we relate to
the situation.
“The railroad
A good journalist crossing at Main
must determine what Street and
is most momentous, Jefferson Avenue
was the scene of
interesting or an early morning
signifcant about the accident as a trailer
story to the truck tried to make
audience. it through
descending
crossing guards.…”
News Elements
 SIGNIFICANCE

News is what affects us in some way, whether

financially (increase in gas prices), physically (horse
meat in “Big Burger” burgers detected), emotionally
(school shooting), or in some other way that has a
direct bearing on our lives.
Examples….
significance
If the story is
newsworthy, the
information will have “The Centers for
direct relevance to Disease Control
our lives. reports that
increased obesity
among children is
responsible for
Information related to many kids having
hypertension and
our personal health
diabetes by age 12.
and financial stability
is often significant.
News Elements
 CONFLICT

News is whatever happens between two opposing forces - whether

between individuals, nations or as the result of fateful occurrences.

Examples…
conflict
 Person v. Person
 Political race for public office
 Person v. Self
 Student earns GED after dropping out of school
 Person v. Fate
 Accident victim learns to walk again
 Person v. Nature
 Family stays together despite losing home in tornado
News Elements
 PROMINENCE

News is what happens to famous people, places or things.

Examples…
prominence
Celebrities, pro athletes, rock
stars, and national
politicians get a lot of
attention.
Justin Bieber…
It is important for journalists
to cover such famous
people when they do
newsworthy things.
“The President will
be in town Saturday
to give the
commencement
address at SMU. The
place is jumping with
Secret Service agents
and news media
everywhere.”
News Elements
 HUMAN INTEREST

Ultimately, news is anything in which people are interested. If you think

a story would interest a majority of your audience, it is probably
newsworthy.

Examples…
human interest
Stories that highlight
unique human
behavior often attract
our attention
because they are out
of the ordinary. “These two football
fans have traveled
more than 8,000 miles,
camped outside three
stadiums and braved
sub-zero temperatures
to see every Denver
Bronco game this
season.”
But -- Civic Journalism videos...
• Framing a story -- when you determine a
focus, what kind of ‘frame’ are you putting
around it? --conflict?
• ‘Two sides to every story’? (no -- many)
• Instead, spend more time ‘in the middle’ --
instead of the extremes on the ends
• The concept is that your well-developed
story can generate ‘more light’
(understanding) and ‘less heat’ (friction) “T
h
Writing the news story
Understanding the news elements helps us know what to emphasize
when we put the story together.

Always start with the most important news element that will capture the
most attention from your audience.
Writing the lead
 TheLEAD - the sentence that begins the report
by summarizing the essence of the story to come.

 A good lead grabs the attention of viewers and causes

them to need to know more
 The lead should highlight the “news” element

 The most typical lead is the summary

Writing the lead
 Summary Lead
 A summary lead emphasizes the outcome of the story so far to give
viewers the most important news up front
 Highlights one or two main facts to help audience get into the story
 Hard news v. Soft news
 Hard News = Used for breaking news or major stories in which the audience
expects just facts
 Soft News = Can be used for lighter stories or interpretive pieces when you
want to emphasize the human interest and emotional aspects of a story

Let’s see how this works…

Writing the lead
 Facts:
 It is July, and sanitation workers have been negotiating for
higher wages
 Workers are planning to strike if requests are not met this
week
 City Council is scheduled to meet in three weeks

 What is important to viewers about this?

 If workers strike, it could be three weeks before trash is
picked up

How can we write this in a one-sentence intro? …

Writing the Lead
 Hard News Lead:
 This lead emphasizes
the latest news in the “Your trash pick-up
could be delayed a
conflict but keeps a
few weeks if city
serious tone sanitation workers
strike as promised
and city council
refuses to discuss
the issue for
another three
weeks.”
Writing the Lead
 Soft News Lead
 This lead emphasizes “We’ll soon be
the bad smell of the smelling the
problem with a slightly mounting
lighter tone than the garbage instead
of spring roses if
hard news lead. the Commerce
City Council
doesn’t
reschedule its
meeting.”
Writing the Lead
 Other Lead types: (handout)
 Suspended interest
 Question
 Freak events
 Well-known expressions
 Staccato
 Metaphor
 Literary allusion
 Parody
Writing the Lead
 Suspended
interest “A Montana woman
 Delays the climax wondered why her
or essence of story dog kept jumping
until end of the into her bed as she
lead. tried to sleep. The
reason became clear
when she got up to
find a python in the
bathroom.”
Writing the Lead
 Question
 Use this lead type
sparingly. It is
dangerous because if “Would you like
5,000 turkeys?
the question lacks
An Atlanta brother
substance, the and sister are
audience will lose searching for that
interest. many to donate to the
needy this
Thanksgiving. …”
Writing the Lead
 Freak Events
 Crazy occurrences are “At zero degrees, it
natural material for was a chilling sight
leads that introduce an to see a Colorado
unusual story couple in swimsuits
at Bear Lake saying
their wedding
vows. It was their
plan to take a
‘second plunge’ at
the conclusion of
the ceremony.”
Writing the Lead
 Well-known
expressions
 Use sparingly as
well since clichés
can be trite and
uninteresting
 There’s gold in them
thar hills
Writing the Lead
 Staccato Leads
 Sets the tone with a
one-two punch that “Rain…then
gets the story off the sleet, snow, and
ground wind… that is
how the day
began for the
residents in our
nation’s capital.”
Writing the Lead
 Metaphor
 Uses figures of “Florida has been
speech that connect anything but the
us to other aspects ‘Sunshine State’
of life with which we for the past week.
are familiar The entire area is
under a severe
weather watch
and flooding is
expected.”
Writing the Lead
 Literary allusion
 References to
fictional or historical “Will Rogers
characters to begin a said, ‘I never
story met a man I
didn’t like.’
Well, Will
Rogers never
met…”
Writing the Lead
 Parody
 A take-off on events “You’ve heard ‘Let
and sayings Mikey do it?’ Well,
currently in vogue two men are resting
well tonight because
and of widespread
Mikey rescued them
interest after a Copper
Mountain avalanche.
This was a first for
Mikey, a St. Bernard
pup, owned by one
of the men.”
 Lead

Link to body

Body

Writing the story

 Once you have the lead, you must organize the
rest of the information in a logical format

 INVERTED PYRAMID style was developed in the

Civil War by newspaper journalists
 Included the five W’s/H (who, what, when, where, why, how)
 Facts listed in descending order of importance in case entire
story did not get transmitted from battlefield to news office
Broadcast style modifies the inverted pyramid…
 Lead

Body
 Broadcast style often follows a PYRAMID
Writing the news story
(conversational) format
 Concise lead with one or two W’s (who, what)
 Story follows in informal style presenting facts in descending order of
importance, driven by what has the best video for TV
 Place emphasis on the event not the time to keep news fresh and
appear as if just occurred
Writing the news story
 Audiencesexpect to “Sanitation workers
hear news that is will be on their
“Sanitation workers
happening now regularly scheduled
will be on their
routes tomorrow with
regularly scheduled
 Although news a retroactive pay
routes tomorrow with
happens before the increase of 50 cents
a retroactive pay
newscast, write as if per hour. Our air will
increase of 50 cents
smell cleaner thanks
just occurring per hour. Our air will
to City Council’s
smell cleaner thanks
decision last night.”
to City Council’s
decision last night.”
Communicating effectively
 Conversational
 Don’t you know, contractions
can help?
 Whassssup? - It should not be
street jargon
 Should sound as if we are
speaking to the audience, not
reading
 Related
 Information must be relevant
 Answer the question, “What
does this have to do with me?”
for audience in first two
sentences
 Creative
 Important facts can become
dull without lively writing
 Make sense
 Organization with logical flow
and progression
 Technically correct
 Anchors, producers and
others involved must be able
to read the copy and
understand it to deliver it
properly.
  :20 to :30 for a reader or VO story
 8 lines
Communicating effectively
 10 pound bag

 :30 / :15 / :20 for a VSV

 Balance
 Lead main point 1, support
 Reaction and comment
 Main point 2, support and close

 1:30 for a PKG

 Lead and main point 1
 Reaction and comment
 Main point 2
 Reaction and comment
 Main point 2 b and reaction and comment
 Main point 3 and close
  List your main facts

Communicating
Outline the main ideas effectively


 W W W W W H and so what?

 Conversational and grammatically correct

 You have to first know what you’re talking about

 You have to then be able to relate that story to an

individual -- write to one -- third person, objective
  ‘Write to the pictures’ -- start with a strong visual lead that telescopes
the story to come
TV News writing reminders
Balance in story between reporter track with b-roll / sound bites / stand -

up

 Reporter tells Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (only the facts)

 Sound bites should mostly be ‘reaction and commentary’ from people

connected to the story
  Television is a language
TV News writing
Words, but effective visuals
 Focus, information gathering, meaning, 5 W’s
 Lighting, Audio, Images, composition
 Visual storytelling, NPPA

 Eyewash, wallpaper
 Clear focus, write the pictures first, shoot sequences, prove
the focus visually, story focus in spot news, tell story
through people, strong nat sound, build in surprises, keep
sound bites short
 More...
  Address the larger issue, make the report memorable,
writing the lead (handout)
TV News writing -- Chap. 1
 Provide visual proof -- butcher with his cleaver at Ft. Worth
meat market: inflation’s effects
 The close: so strong that nothing else can top it
 White space, nat sound, pacing, write to the pictures,
reportorial editing
 Incues and outcues -- see sample scripts
 Some issues about good writing, some about production,
like padding, cues, etc.