COMPILATION OF NEWS BULLETIN:Hard news, Soft news, Investigative report

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TV News Reporting and Production MCM 516

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.

TV News Reporting and Production MCM 516

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.

TV News Reporting and Production MCM 516

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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