Introduction to Television Reporting

9. What is news?

(This is the Ninth article in the Ten part series on 'Introduction to Television Reporting', this series is part of an online course taken by CBA)

What is news?

Many people have tried to come up with a useful definition of news, but few have been successful. Even highly experienced journalists struggle to explain precisely what they do – and how.

But how do journalists learn to spot a news story amid everything that is happening in the world? How do editors decide, from all theevents and stories of the day, what to include in the bulletins and what to leave out?

Remarkably, even though the actual stories vary from place to place and from society to society, there's broad agreement on what makes a strong news story. The most important thing is that it has some meaning to your audience. Why else would you report it?

Generally speaking, we can say news has impact, and immediacy.

Impact

People are clearly more interested in events which affect them. The degree of impact relies on a few factors:

·         Significance:

v  How important is it?

v  Is it causing, or does it have the potential to cause, a great deal of harm (or good) to a number of people?

v  Or perhaps very great harm to a small number of people?

v  Or rather less impact on a larger number of people?

Clearly, a real impact (10,000 dead in an earthquake) is of greater significance than a potential threat (10,000 people are at risk after tremors were felt in an earthquake zone).

·         Proximity:

The impact of a story is greater if the events are happening close to home. The audience will want news from their own country

more than news from elsewhere. But events far away can be relevant if there is a social tie. The audience will be interested to hear

about their countrymen caught up in dramatic events in a far-off country.

·         Immediacy:

..because if it's not new, it isn't news. News is about telling people things they didn't already know.

Forward Planning Diaries

In addition to breaking news (which is by nature unplanned) news programmes benefit greatly from keeping a diary of events which can be planned.

A few examples of events that can be planned in advance are:

§  Scheduled elections

§  national or religious holidays

§  conferences

§  events like International Women's Day

§  sporting events

§  birthdays of national figures

§  ...and so on...

By keeping a diary where as many newsworthy dates as possible are recorded, some feature news can be planned.

Background filming, if useful, can be organised for slow news days and news teams assigned in advance to stories on the diary.

Other dates can be added to the diary which are significant. For example, think about anniversaries. If anew telecoms network or transport system has been launched in your country, try looking at that network one year later, on the anniversary of the launch.

Has it worked well or not? Has it benefited people? Many questions can be asked and explored.

Breaking News Stories

Breaking news is usually easy to recognise; a sudden resignation of a politician, a plane crash, a natural disaster, a coup, a refugee crisis, a sudden rise of petrol prices or a World Cup football victory.

Your skill as a journalist is to determine how to best cover these stories. If they are local stories, then the most appropriate news team must be deployed.

If they are foreign stories, then the news agency footage must be used well and supplemented with local material or interviews if appropriate.

Time is always the big challenge. The editor must assign a news team as soon as possible to give journalists maximum time to cover the story properly and have a well rounded package ready for the next news programme.

Working against a tight deadline is a big part of our jobs.

Qualities of Breaking News and Feature News stories

In many ways journalists look for stories with the same qualities that novelists or screenwriters would use to make an impact.

Ø  Drama – tension, power struggles, suspense, love and hate

Ø  Emotion – is it sad, funny, uplifting, moving?

Ø  Conflict – between individuals, groups or nations

Ø  Strong figures – leaders, heroes, villains, the powerful, rich and famous

Ø  Surprise – the unexpected.

A newspaper editor once said "When a dog bites a man, that's not news, but when a man bites a dog, that's news."

Where to find feature stories

A story typically develops in three stages: idea —> research —> production.

The idea for a story can come from anywhere. A curious and interested reporter will never run out of ideas. He or she will discover interesting issues to pursue while talking to neighbours, people in the market or on the bus, or while walking around with open eyes and ears.

Many ideas will come from discussing with or listening to your audience: valuable ideas can also be suggested by viewers. The closer you are to your audience and the more you understand their needs, the more successful you will be as a journalist.

The successful reporter or editor is constantly thinking about the audience. What do they want to know? What questions would they ask?

Apart from the ideas you get from your audience and your own inspiration, there are of course events such as news conferences, national celebrations, meetings, festivals, sports and cultural events.

There are also news agencies and the internet which will suggest ideas and provide background information. Other local and international media can be monitored too for interesting stories and developments that you may wish to follow up.

Sometimes news stories might come from press releases from governmental departments or other organisations. Examine these and follow up on what look promising. Remember, the real story might not be in the headline of a press release, but buried somewhere further down the page.

Planning and shooting news features

Pre-shooting on a news feature can add much to a package.

For example if you were planning a story about the 80th birthday of an elder statesmen, filming him in advance would give viewers a richer story.

In this case, you might request an interview with the statesman to be filmed some days in advance. Then on the day, after filming the birthday celebrations, you would be able to edit in the interview which you shot earlier.

A Few Tips

With each feature idea or news story you need to ask a number of questions:

·         Is it really a story?

·         What information is still needed to complete the story?

·         Are there other views I need to hear?

·         What is the best way to relate it to my audience?

Introduction to Television Reporting

4.Packaging

(This is the Fourth article in the Ten part series on 'Introduction to Television Reporting', this series is part of an online course taken by CBA)

Packaging is the art of pulling together all the different elements: video, audio, interviews, script and pieces to camera. Packaging will turn these into one coherent piece that works seamlessly for the viewer.

To package a news story effectively means using every craft skill well. All of the modules on this course will feed into this overall need to create a good package.

Before you start a story

The moment you start to cover a story, you must be very clear what your story is about.

·         What is the issue or event involved?

·         Who are the people involved?

·         What is the explanation or resolution of this story?

·         What are the facts to report and questions to ask?

If you are going out in the field to produce a news story or feature with original footage make a wish list of ideal pictures & audio & interviews that you would like to shoot. List the specific sequences you would want to film. List the people you like to interview...and so on.

Write this list down in your notebook – and check it several times during the day to cross off what you have and look at what you still need.

Even though things will change, this planning will pay off.

Of course once you arrive at the scene, whether it is a press conference, a demonstration or a news feature, there will be things you didn't expect or know about. Your list is still useful because it gives you guidance and ideas. Because you have already thought about the story, you will be able to include these new elements or modify your original plans. So be flexible and be prepared.

Story structure

It may sound like an obvious point, but never forget that every news story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

You don't have to tell the story in that order, but there are always three parts, so think about them carefully.

A good method is to start with the strongest pictures to grab the viewer immediately. These pictures might come from the end of the story or even the middle. Then you can explain the events that led up to those pictures.

To get this idea, think of movies you have seen and how many movies plots were not necessary telling a story in chronological order.

The only rule is to tell a clear story and connect with the viewers.

Tell one story

You will be able to tell a clear story by telling one story. This will help you achieve clarity and organise all your material. By deciding this one story, it will be easier for you to write your script.

Your audience

Always address the question of why this story matters to your viewers. What elements of this story will they be most interested in? What are the key interviews for your audience? What is the message that you want your audience to take away with them?

Never stop asking yourself these questions.

Create transitions

Make your script flow by creating transitions between sequences. Transitions can be created in a number of ways; by using natural sound; by starting the audio from the next video sequence over your script from the previous; or by writing into the interviews or vox pops before we hear them.

Your piece to camera (also called a stand up) can be used to create a transition between different locations or the passage of time. This works well when using your piece to camera as a bridge between two parts of the package.

Reporter involvement

An effective news story has a strong sense of reporter involvement. After all, the reporter - you! - is the person who is there and telling this story.

You can add personal touches of your own observations. This will reinforce the sense of "being there" for the audience. You can describe the atmosphere, tense or calm. You can describe the feeling of heat or cold or the smell of the salty sea. There are many ways to share with your audience.

Finally, the reporter often has experience of other similar stories he or she has covered and this background knowledge can add to a script. Use your experience to provide some context to a story if that helps.

A Few Tips

·         Provide your audience with a sense in place in your shooting and pieces to camera by describing and showing them the scene

·         Pieces to camera or stand ups can provide a sense of place

·         'Less is more' as we learned in the Scripting module – shorter scripts with lots of natural sound and time to watch the video are more effective

·         Always shoot sequences with matching close ups, medium shots and wide shoots as we learned in the Shooting module – the more material you have to work with in the edit, the better

·         Use library (archive or agency) material as well as you use the material you have shot yourself. Script it and edit it just as carefully.

·         Remember that the journalist is not the story – the journalist is there to tell the story.