How can we make effective broadcast journalism?

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How can we make effective broadcast journalism?

• Understand technology: Broadcast journalists need to understand the
production techniques, capabilities and limitations of equipment used
in broadcast news. In radio, reporters are expected to record and edit
audiotape. Reporters in small – market television news are expected to
know how to use a minicam and video editing equipment.

• Learn to perform: Broadcast journalists should learn not only how to
report and write but how to perform. After all, stories that are
written are aired on news shows. Because of the emphasis on live
coverage in broadcast reporting, reporters should learn to speak
extemporaneously.

• Emphasize the last sentence of the story: Remember that the last
sentence of the broadcast news item is the second most important part
of the story. Only the lead is more important. The final sentence is
the wind-up line; the “punch line.” winding up with the least
important fact in a broadcast story would sound like a balloon with
the air running slowly out of it. The reporter should use a summary
line, a future angle or another important fact or merely repeat the
main point to end the story. For example, in a story about a man
pleading guilty to two counts of the threatening to kill or harm the
president of the United States, the newspaper version might end with
the maximum penalties that could be imposed. That would be a logical
wind-down to a story. The broadcast version, however, could end with
another important, related fact, such as,” the arrest came just 10
days after another man, John Jones, was charged in connection with an
attempted stabbing of the president as he was leaving a hotel in
Washington, D.C.”
• Approach television as a unique medium: Television Journalists
should recognize that television is a unique medium-a visual medium
that can show action .Therefore, the kind and quality of visual
material available for a given story frequently determine the length
and position the news producer will not allot to it. In fact, stories
that might not otherwise be considered newsworthy may become so if
they present good visual possibilities it is not unusual for a
producer to ask a reporter ,” what kind of videotape do we have on the
story ?”One of the challenges facing the news reporter is to get
motion pictures that illustrate the story.