Seeing and Hearing The News

NOTE: This post was published on Monday, but did not appear until today due to technical difficulties, literally.

I always thought that there was a little Ron Burgundy in every television news anchor and reporter, and reading Chapter 19 hasn't changed my view of broadcast news. Broadcast writing seems easy. All you have to do is a) make the news sound urgent -- and you can do that by just changing the tone of your voice -- and b) use small words and smile a lot.

Another reason to become a broadcast journalist: the hip tv news lingo. Broadcast journalists get to "cue in" stories and "tee up" names. "Lead-in" and "wrap-up" don't sound as cool, but they're still exclusive to the realm of television.

There were a few tips the textbook (and my classmates) had for the broadcast journalists that I try to follow when I write a story for a (hypothetical) newspaper: 1) Use short, simple sentences. 2) Use one thought per sentence. 3) Use present tense whenever possible and write in an overall clear style.
Yes! I agree! But this advice shouldn't be limited to tv news. Every journalist should make it as easy as possible for the news consumer to read/see/listen to the news and understand what's going on in the world around them...without having to sit and think about it too long. Why does following the news have to be so painful? Why do print journalists try to cram 3 or 4 details in one sentence? Just because a sentence is gramatically correct doesn't mean it's easy to read! Just because it's easy to read doesn't mean it's interesting! Wait, what was I talking about, again?...

OK, so, broadcast journalism...what else can I say...

I like how the textbook didn't try to hide the fact that many televised news packages make it to air because they're content is visually interesting. What looks good on the tv screen gains news value. Newspapers are the record of our times, but television news is designed to hold a viewer's interest only for the moment...and that's okay (print journalists shudder). I think students at IC who join the journalism department to WRITE the news have a difficult time with broadcast journalism because they try to make the content of broadcast news the same as print news, just presented in a different format. But the content of broadcast news is often very different than what you might find in a newspaper. TV news performs a different function in society. The importance of that function? Well, the danger is that tv news develops into a source of entertainment rather than a source of information...but tv news is also important because, hopefully, it inspires the news viewer to do as the news anchor says and "go to the website for more information." Or even, god forbid, crack open a newspaper.

One more thing that I liked:
"Short words are best, and old words, when short, are best of all."
-- Winston Churchill