Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook

by Bob Papper, Janet Kolodzy

Overview

Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook is the go-to resource for writing broadcast news, offering a concise introduction to writing engaging stories for television, radio, podcasts and online media.

Covering the nuances of reporting, grammar, style and usage, readers will learn how to craft stories on government, crime, weather, education, health, sports and more. This eighth edition is updated to include:

• New sections on industry challenges and opportunities from artificial intelligence, deepfakes and streaming.
• Fully updated examples, exercises and glossary.
• An expanded focus on ethics with ethical issues discussed in virtually every chapter.

Drawing on over a quarter of a century of broadcast news and industry research experience, authors Papper and Kolodzy once again ensure this vital text contains all the information necessary for being a successful news writer today.

Whether you’re a journalism student or a working broadcast professional, Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook is a definitive reference for your bookshelf.

This book also features an accompanying Instructor Manual, found at www.routledge.com/9781032519845

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781040131572
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/14/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	346
File size:	724 KB

About the Author

Bob Papper is Research Professor at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. A graduate of Columbia College and the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, he has worked as a producer, writer and manager at TV stations in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Washington, DC and Columbus, OH and radio stations in New York, Maine and Indiana. He has won more than a hundred awards including the top honors in broadcast journalism (duPont-Columbia) and in broadcast journalism education (Ed Bliss Award).

Prof. Janet Kolodzy teaches multimedia and broadcast journalism at Emerson College in Boston. A Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism graduate, she has worked as a writer, copyeditor and producer at CNN and CNN International. She was the education reporter and an editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Arkansas Democrat. She is the author of Practicing Convergence Journalism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1 News Now, News Next

What Is News?

Types of Stories

Finding Stories

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

2 Challenges in News Today

Financial Challenges

Ratings

Misinformation, Disinformation and Fake News

Artificial Intelligence

Journalists, Trust in the Media Under Attack

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

3 Challenges Bring Opportunities

Why Social Media?

Why Mobile?

Measuring Engagement and Driving Traffic

Streaming/OTT (Over the Top)

Artificial Intelligence … AI

Other Opportunities

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

4 Research, Collecting Information and Bites

The Assignment Desk

Online

On Social Media

Morning and Afternoon Meetings

Artificial Intelligence

What Makes a Good Bite

Conducting Successful Interviews

Beyond the Interview

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

5 Readability

Broadcast News Writing

Writing for the Ear vs. Writing for the Eye

Rules of Readability

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

6 Words

Keep It Simple

Keep It Conversational

Keep It Clear

Keep It Tight

Make It Powerful

Get It Right

Common Problems

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

7 Phrases and Phrasing

How to Say It

What to Say

What You Didn’t Mean to Say

Last Note

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

8 Sentences

Keep It Short

Make It Clean, Clear and Concise

Last Note

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

9 Leads and Endings

Types of Leads

Figuring Out the Lead

Types of Endings

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

10 Stories

Plan and Focus

Story Logic

Story Structure

Transitions

Before You’re Done

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

11 Working with Bites, Actualities and Natural Sound

The Feel of Natural Sound

Working with Bites, Actualities and Natural Sound

Packages

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

12 TV: Story Forms

Story Forms

Putting Packages Together

MMJ … VJ … One-Man Band

Live Reporting

Golden Rules

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

13 TV: Working with Pictures

The Power of the Visual Image

The TV Balancing Act

Picture Cautions

Drones

Strong Stories Have Central Characters and a Plot

Prove Your Story

The Element of Surprise

Connecting with Truths

Care About the Story

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

14 Producing News on TV

Overview

Audience

Newscast Structure

Building a Local Newscast

Teases and Promos

Promotion

Tease … Don’t Tell

Make Them Care

Don’t Ever Do This

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

15 Producing News on Social Media

Branding

Do Everything, Distribute the Most Engaging

Be Everywhere

Taking Better Pictures

20 Survival and Growth Tips

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

16 Producing News on Websites and Mobile

Streaming Video

Constructing Web News

Beyond Text, Pictures and Video

Multimedia

Constructing Mobile News

SEO, SMO and Keywords

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

17 Radio, Audio, Podcasts: Story Forms and Working with Sound

Radio Story Forms

Drawing Radio Pictures

Podcasts

Audio and Social Media

The Business of Radio

Summary

Ethics

Key Words and Phrases

Exercises

18 News, Weather and Sports

Why News, Weather and Sports?

Reporting Weather

Defining Weather Terms

Reporting Sports

Sports and Teams

19 Reporting: Seasonal Coverage and the Calendar

Seasonal Reporting

Solar and Lunar and the World’s Major Religions

Calendar Holidays

State Holidays

20 Reporting: The GA and Specialized Coverage

The General Assignment Reporter

Business, Economy and Taxes

Crime and Legal

Education

The Environment

Geography

Government

Heath and Medicine

21 Ethics, Legality and the RTDNA and SPJ Codes of Ethics

Ethics

Ethical Decision-Making Starts at the Top

Issues in Media Law

The Radio-Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics

Summary

Exercises

22 TV Script Form, Supers and Glossary

Abbreviations

Script Form

Glossary of Broadcast and Online Terms

Index

Editorial Reviews

PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS EDITIONS

"This book will teach you how to tell a visual story well, using all the tools. The new edition of Bob Papper's classic shines a light for the digital age and will show you the way."

Bob Dotson, former NBC News National Correspondent and New York Times best selling author

"Papper’s text has long earned accolades as a comprehensive and engaging guide to broadcast reporting, covering everything from interviewing to ethics, from writing for the ear to writing for the eye, from effective narrative techniques to the basics of proper usage and grammar. For those of us teaching Broadcast Journalism during these rapidly changing times in news, this new edition is a terrific addition to our teaching toolkit."

Judy Muller, Professor, USC Annenberg School, USA

"This edition has excellent tips for writing sound broadcast news copy and has now been updated with information from Papper’s outstanding surveys of the news industry, advice from professional journalists, as well as ideas on the best practices for using new technology such as drones."

G. Stuart Smith, Professor, Hofstra University, USA

"This latest edition of Papper's well-respected style manual for broadcast news comes only two years after the previous release. Papper restructured the manual to forefront fundamentals of broadcast journalism, beginning with a chapter on ethics. Modest revisions follow....The manual is strongest when it remains focused on the details of style and usage elaborated by real-world examples....While the title suggests an audience limited to students of broadcast news, the style and usage sections of the manual have value for writers of any discipline composing podcasts or other new media work."

G. Wilsbacher, University of South Carolina

From the Publisher