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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
516
VU
LESSON
19
COMPILATION
OF NEWS BULLETIN
The
recent past has witnessed an
explosion in the number of news media
serving the audience all
over
the
world. There are various
television Channels, full time and
all news networks, sports
channel,
financial
news channel, entertainment channel,
historical channel, religious channel and even
weather
channel.
More
news is available now than
at any other time in human
history. Obviously news is an
important
commodity
for all kind of public.
Before anything becomes
news, however, it must be
reported, a rise in
gasoline
prices, a city council meeting, a road
accident, a political gathering, a protest
rally, all must be
filtered
through the eyes and ears of
the a journalist.
A
reporter must be aware of
qualities that characterize a
news story, the types of news
that exist, and the
difference
in the way the various media cover
news.
From
the million of things happen every
day, print, broadcast,
telecast and online journalist
decide
which
few things are worth
reporting. Deciding what is
newsworthy is not an exact science.
News
values
are formed by tradition,
technology, organizational policy, and
increasingly economics.
Nonetheless
most of the journalists agree
that there are some common
elements that
characterize
newsworthy
events. In addition to five
traditional elements of timeliness,
proximity, prominence,
consequence
and human interest of news value, economic
plays a vital role
now.
First,
some stories cost more to
cover than others. It is cheaper to
send a reporter with a
camera crew to
city
council meeting than to
assign a team of reporters to investigate
city council's corruption.
Some
news
operations might not be willing to
pay the price for such
story.
Conversely
after spending a large some of
money pursuing in a story, the
news channel might run
it,
even
if it had little traditional news
value, simply to justify its
cost to the management.
By
the same token, the cost of
new technology is reflected in the types
of stories that are covered.
When
TV
stations went to Electronic News
Gathering (ENG) stories that
could be covered live became
more
important.
In
fact, many organizations,
conscious of scheduling of TV news
programmes, plan their meetings
and
demonstrations
during the newscast to enhance
their chance of receiving TV
coverage.
Compiling
a News Bulletin
While
compiling a news bulletin,
generally news can been
broken into three broad
categories:
Hard
news
Soft
news
Investigative
report
Hard
news
Hard
news stories make up the bulk of
news reporting. They
typically embody the traditional
news
values.
Hard news consists of basic
fact. It is the news of important
public events, such as
government
actions,
international happenings, social conditions, the
economy, crime, environment and
science.
Hard
news has significance for
the large number of people. The
front sections of a newspaper, or
magazine
and the lead stories of a radio or
television newscast usually
are filled with hard
news.
In
the broadcast media, with the added
considerations of limited time, sound and
video, telecast
reporting
follows a square format. The
information level stays
about the same throughout the
story.
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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
516
VU
There
is usually no time for less
important facts that would
come in the last paragraph of a
newspaper
story.
TV
and radio news stories
are either a hard or a soft
lead. A hard news contains the
most important
information,
the basic fact of the story. Where as a
soft lead is used to get the
viewers attention, it
may
not
convey much
information.
The
lead then supported by the body of the
story, which introduces new
information and it amplifies the
lead.
The summations, the final
few sentences in the report
can be used to personalize the main
point,
introduce
another fact, or discuss future
developments.
The
broadcast or news telecast is
totally different from that
of print news: it is more
informal,
conversational,
and simple. In addition it is designed to complement
sound bites that are the
voice of
newsmaker
or videotape segment.
Soft
news
Soft
news or feature covers a
wide territory. The one
thing all soft news
has in common Is that it interest
the
audience. Features typically rely on
human interest for the news value.
They appeal to people's
curiosity,
sympathy, skepticism, disbelief, or
amazement. They can be about
places, people, animals,
topics,
events, or products. Some stories
that would be classified as
soft news are the birth of
kangaroo
at
local zoo, a personality sketch of a
local resident who have a small
part in the upcoming movie,
a
cook
who works a s a stand-up comedian, a
teenager gets a tax refund
cheques.
Features
are entertaining and the audience likes
them. Many television and print
vehicles are based
primarily
on the soft content.
TV
features are more common than
radio features. In some large TV
markets one or more reporter
cover
nothing
but features. Almost all stations have
feature file where story
ideas are catalogued. If a local
TV
station
does not have the resource to produce
local features, it can look to
syndication companies
that
provide
the general interest features for a
subscription fee.
Telecast
features also use a variety
of formats. Humorous leads and delaying
the main points until
the
end
sometimes work well, a
technique often used in features. A
simple narrative structure, used
in
everyday
storytelling, can also be
effective. The interview
format is also popular;
particularly when the
feature
is about a well-known
personality.
Investigative
report
These
reports unearth significant about matters
of the public importance through the
use of non-routine
information
gathering methods. Since the Watergate
affair was uncovered by a pair of
Washington
newspaper
reporters investigative reporting has
also been looked upon as
primarily concerned
with
exposing
corruption in high
places.
Investigative
reports require a good deal of
time and money. Because of
these heavy investments,
they
are
generally longer than the
typical telecast news item.
Telecast investigative reports are
usually
packaged
in documentaries or in a 10-15 minutes segment of a
news magazine programme.
In
television and radio, the investigative
reporters have less time to o explore
background issues.
Documents
and records are hard to
portray on television, so less
emphasis is placed on tem, instead the
TV
reporter must come up with
the interviews and other
visual aspects that will
illustrate the story.
Moreover
the length of a TV report will
sometimes dictate its
form.
Speed
is more important for news
telecast than it is for the
press. TV is almost always first
with the
news
as a newspaper has to wait
for the next morning to give
the latest news while a television
channel
has
several news bulletins in 24 hours.
Therefore TV deadlines are more frequent
than that of
newspaper
dead lines. The modern TV
reporter also uses camera
for news item.
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TV
News Reporting and Production MCM
516
VU
Television
was introduced to the world
about thirty-five years
after the radio in 1945. At
most of the
places
the television developed as sister
organization to the radio; therefore it
has grown up as a
sister
operation
to radiomen. Television outclassed
all other media of communication in
effectiveness as it
illustrated
and is very close to face-to-face
communication, which is considered most
suit able and
effective
mode of communication.
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