JRN31722—Broadcast Journalism

Lecture notes (Restricted circulation)

Strictly for 4JNR1 AY 2021 to 2022

Formats of TV News

FORMAT WHO/WHAT IS SEEN ON TV WHO IS HEARD

Read stories or reader
(sometimes called News
Item)

Silent or SIL

Silent/SOT or SILSOT

Silent/CGEN or Sil/CGEN

Lead-in

Voice-over

Stand-upper or stand-up – may be open, closer, or internal bridge; done by reporter facing
the camera directly; usually 10-20 seconds long

Live – reporter broadcasts directly from the scene of the story

Double box – anchor and reporter side by side on screen

Phoner or phone patch – live report or interview done on phone

Headlines and teaser – placed at the beginning of a newscast and in between for
commercials

Icon, topic box, or box – located to the left or right of the anchor

Supers or partial CGEN – also called lower-thirds; used for names, titles, location,
addresses, times, or phone numbers for the audience

Computer art – create maps, graphs, charts, or illustration

Crawls – news ticker that scrolls across the bottom of the screen

Camera shots:

Establisher shots – location of the story

Point-of-view shot – view seen through a subject’s eyes

Sitners or reaction shot – situationers; at the scene of the story

Cutaway shots – could be noddy shots or reverse shots

Best shots for the VO

 Action rather than still shots

 People rather than empty shots
 Shots with natural sound when it’s there
 Close ups rather than wide shots
 Shots that avoid generic visuals when possible
 Simple rather than complex shots
 Shots with restrained camera movements