Lecture 9

Writing for broadcast, I

Writing for the mass media means taking information and putting it into some acceptable
form for a certain medium. You had to do that for news stories for print by learning how
to write in the inverted pyramid structure. Now we begin writing for broadcast, which
take a different form of writing.

Note: The world of broadcasting is growing. Not only do we have 24-hour radio and
television stations for news, but specialty stations for sports, weather and other subjects
are coming on the area. We now have more broadcast news than ever.

Remember the four characteristics of media writing

 accuracy
 completeness

 efficiency

 precision

Broadcast writing emphasizes efficiency. But efficiency should not come at the expense of
any of the other characteristics.

Efficiency is one of the most prized writing characteristics. Efficiency means using the
fewest words to present you information accurately and clearly. Efficiency is difficult to
achieve because

 most of us write inefficiently, especially on first draft

 most of use do not do a good job in editing our writing

 the world is filled with inefficient writing, and we often fall victim to it.

As you begin learning to write for broadcasting, you must understand what you are

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writing about so you will know

 what is important
 what is essential

 what is necessary for your story to make it understandable

 what can make it interesting

 what you can leave out

Criticisms of broadcast news

Not everyone thinks that the broadcast news profession is doing the best it can for
viewers. Here are some of the major criticisms of broadcast news:

It’s too short and too shallow. The convention of writing broadcast news is so limiting
that it doesn’t allow writer enough time to give information and details that would
enlightening the listener. Most broadcast news stories are 20 to 30 seconds long. That
simply isn’t enough time to do any view much good.

Pictures or audio drive a story. One of the sayings in the profession is “If it bleeds, it
leads.” That means the bloodier or more horrific the pictures, the more likely it is that the
story will lead the newscast. Another aspect of this criticism is that stories are broadcast
because the station has film or audio – not because the stories themselves are worthy.

Broadcast news emphasizes the superficial rather than the substantive. This criticism
is related to the two above. Critics say broadcast news reporters often pick out the
sensational or the most unusual aspect of a story to emphasize rather than what is the
most important.

Broadcast news writers depend on clichés rather than information, particularly to end

their stories. Many reporters find an ending that says in effect, “Who knows?” or “We’ll
have to wait and see” convenient for ending a story. For years, the reporter who covered
the Supreme Court for National Public Radio would end her stories about cases before the
court by saying, “A decision is expected by next summer.” That sentences – besides
containing a passive verb construction – tells us nothing since most Supreme Court cases

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are decided before the court recesses for the summer.

 Differences in writing for broadcast and writing for print

So far in this course, you have learned some of the customs and conventions for writing for
print. In this section, some of the conventions will change. Here’s how:

What you write will be shorter. There won’t be as many words, but those words must be
more carefully chosen.

You will have to learn some different style rules.Broadcast writing doesn’t always follow
AP style. In fact, there are some important differences. You will have to learn what they
are.

Broadcast news does not use the inverted pyramid structure; instead, it uses something
called dramatic unity.

You will have to consider whether or not you have audio or visuals (pictures, film,
video) to go with your story. If you do, you will probably want to include those, and
broadcast writing has certain conventions for doing that.

The main consideration you have will be time. You might write your copy so that it can
be read aloud in a certain time period. For most stories, that is 30 seconds or less.

 Differences in writing style

You will note some real differences in your writing style when you begin writing for
broadcast, namely:

Sentences will be shorter. You’ll write more simple sentences and fewer complex ones.

You’ll use the present tense more. We’ll discuss that more completely later. Still mixed up
about tenses?

Attribution will be handled differently.

Details – particularly numbers – will also be handled differently in your copy.

pro•NUN•see•A•shun. You must pay attention to the way words sound together. (For
instance, too many ‘s’ sounds can be difficult to say aloud: She sells sea shells by the

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seashore.) You must also include phonetic spellings for unusual or unfamiliar words.

Remember, your copy is being written so that someone can read it out loud. You need to
help the person reading it as much as possible.

Getting started

The key to all good writing for the mass media is to understand what you are writing
about. Broadcast writing is no different. The writer has to understand thoroughly the
information that must be presented. Then the writer has to begin asking some questions:

 What is the dominant theme?

 What facts illuminate or help develop this theme?

 What is the principal impression I want to leave with the viewer?

 What is the most significant or interesting part of this story?

 What is necessary for understanding this story?

 What can I leave out?

Dramatic unity

The major form of writing that we will learn for broadcast writing is called dramatic unity.
That is a structure that allows us to tell a story quickly and without a lot of detail.

The dramatic unity structure has three parts: climax, cause and effect. The structure is
usually represented by a circle, symbolizing the fact that all of these parts are necessary for
a good story. (Remember when we talked about the inverted pyramid structure? We said
that some of the least important information might be eliminated. That’s not the case with
dramatic unity. You don’t eliminated any part of it.)

Climax – the end of the story; the most important thing that happened; the most
dramatic thing that happened. That comes first.

Cause – why did it happen? what are the circumstances under which it occurred? what
are the facts that can illuminate the climax and help the reader understand what happened

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and why?

Effect – explain the outcome, the effect or the future of the event; try to bring this story
to a satisfying conclusion.

Take a look at the examples on the left. The first is a newspaper story about a fairly
complex subject. Below it is a broadcast news story in the dramatic unity form. You should
also note some of the differences in writing style that we have already talked about. What
are some of the other differences that we have not discussed yet?

Practice, practice, practice

Now it’s time for you to put some of the things we have discussed in this lecture into
practice. This web site contains several exercises on which you can practice. So does the
textbook. So does your daily newspaper. Try taking some locally written story and writing
a 30-second (about the length of the story on the left) broadcast news story out of it.###