Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are "broadcast", that is, published by electrical methods, instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. Broadcast methods include radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, and Internet), and, especially recently, the Internet generally. Such media disperse pictures (static and moving), visual text, and/or sounds.
Scripts for speaking to be broadcast tend to be written differently than text to be read by the public. For instance, the former is generally less complex and more conversational. Radio and television are designed to be seen and heard sooner and more often than is a daily or weekly newspaper.
Broadcast "stories" (articles) can be written in "packages", "readers", "voice overs", and "sound on tape".
A "package" is an edited set of video clips for a news story and is common on television. It is narrated typically by a reporter. It is a story with audio, video, graphics and video effects. The anchor usually reads a "lead in" (introduction) before the package is aired and may conclude the story with additional information, called a tag.
A "reader" is an article read without accompanying video or sound. Sometimes an "over the shoulder graphic" is added.
A
voice overVoice-over is a production technique where a non-diegetic voice is broadcast live or pre-recorded in radio, television, film, theatre and/or presentation....
, or VO, is a video article narrated by the anchor.
Sound on tapeSOT is an acronym for Sound on tape. It refers to any audio recorded on analog or digital video formats. It is used in television and film script writing to indicate portions of the video that will use the natural sound from the time of recording, as opposed to audio recorded later .- External links...
, or SOT, is sound and/or video, usually recorded in the field. It is usually an interview or "
soundbiteIn broadcast journalism, a sound bite is a short piece of actual sound from the event reported on. The term is also used for the section of video that accompanies the audio...
".
Radio
Radio was the first medium for broadcast journalism. Many of the first radio stations were co-operative community ventures not making a profit. Later, advertising to pay for programs was pioneered in radio. Later, television displaced radio and newspapers as the main news sources for most of the public in industrialized countries.
Some of the programming on radio is locally produced; some is broadcast by a network, by syndication, etc. The "talent" (professional voices) talk to the audience, including reading the news. People tune in to hear engaging personalities, music, and information that they want. In radio news, stories include speech "sound bites", the recorded sounds of events themselves, and the anchor or host.
The radio industry has undergone a radical consolidation of ownership, with fewer companies owning the thousands of stations. Large media conglomerates such as
Clear Channel CommunicationsClear Channel Communications is an American media conglomerate company headquartered at 200 East Basse Road in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, who wields considerable influence in radio broadcasting, concert promotion and hosting, and fixed advertising in...
own most of the stations in the United States. That has resulted in more "niche" formats and the sharing of resources within clusters of stations, de-emphasizing local news and information. There has been concern over whether that concentration of power serves the public. The opposition says that the range of political views expressed and supported is greatly narrowed and that local concerns are neglected, including local emergencies, for which communication is critical. Automation has resulted in many stations broadcasting for many hours a day with no one on the station premises.
Television
Television (TV) news is considered by many to be the most influential medium for journalism. For most of the American public, local and national TV newscasts are the primary news sources. Not only the numbers of viewers, but the effect on each viewer is considered more persuasive, as described by
Marshall McLuhanHerbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar — a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist. McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory.McLuhan is known for the...
("the medium is the message" in his book
Understanding Media). Television is dominated by attractive visuals (including beauty, action, and shock), with short sound bites and fast "cuts" (changes of camera view). Television journalism viewership has become fragmented, with all-news cable channels such as
CNNCable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
starting in 1980 and
Fox News ChannelThe Fox News Channel , commonly referred to as Fox or Fox News, is a major American cable news and satellite channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation. As of April 2009, it is available to 102 million households in the U.S...
and
MSNBCMSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States and available in both the US and Canada. Its name is a combination of "MSN" and "NBC"....
in the 1990s.
Local Television
The industry divides television into local
markets. Such markets are defined by viewing area and are ranked by the number of viewers. New broadcast journalists generally start in the smaller markets (fewer viewers) and move up to larger stations after gaining experience. The larger stations usually have more resources and better pay.
United States stations typically broadcast local news 3 or 4 times a day: around 4:30, 5 or 6 am, 11, 11:30 am or noon, 5 and/or 6 pm, and 10 and/or 11 at night. Most of their nightly local newscasts are 30 minutes and include sports and weather. Anchors are shown sitting at a desk in a studio. They read teleprompters. Reporters frequently tell their stories in
live shotsIn broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast is broadcasting done from a location away from the regular studio. A remote pickup unit is usually used to transmit the audio and/or video back to the station, where it joins the normal airchain...
outside the studio where the news is occurring. Morning shows include more "soft" news and feature pieces, while the evening news emphasizes "hard" news.
News jobs
Anchors (formerly "anchormen") serve as masters of ceremonies and are usually shown facing the camera in a studio while reading unseen teleprompters. They are often in pairs (co-anchors) side by side, often alternating their reading. Meteorologists describe and forecast weather and show "graphics" (maps, charts, and pictures). Any of those people can become the most recognizable faces of a station. Reporters research and write the stories and sometimes edit them into a package. Reporters are usually accompanied by a videographer at the scenes of the news. The latter holds the camera. That person or assistants manage the audio and ighting. They are in charge of setting up live shots and might edit, too. The producer might choose, research, and write stories, as well as deciding the timing and arrangement of the newscast. An associate producer, if any, might specialize in elements of the show such as graphics.
Production jobs
A newscast director is in charge of show preparation, including assigning camera and talent (cast) positions on the set, as well as selecting the camera shots and other elements (recorded and live). The technical director operates the
video switcherA vision mixer is a device used to select between several different video sources and in some cases composite video sources together and add special effects...
which controls and mixes all the elements of the show. At smaller stations, the director and technical director are the same person.
A graphics person operates a character generator that produces the name keys (on-screen titles) and full-page graphics. The audio technician operates the audio board. The technician is in charge of the microphones, music, and audio tape. Often, production assistants operate the teleprompters and cameras, and serve as lighting and rigging technicians ("
gripsIn the U.S. and Canada, grips are lighting and rigging technicians in the film and video industries. They make up their own department on a film set and are led by a key grip. Grips have two main functions. The first is to work closely with the camera department, especially if the camera is...
").
On-line convergence
Convergence is the sharing and cross-promoting of content from a variety of media, which in theory might all converge and become one medium eventually. In broadcast news, the Internet is key part of convergence. Frequently, broadcast journalists also write text stories for the Web, usually accompanied by the graphics and sound of the original story. Web sites offer the audience an interactive form where they can learn more about a story, can be referred to related articles, can offer comments for publication, and can print stories at home, etc.
Convergence also lets newsrooms collaborate with other media. Broadcast outlets sometimes have partnerships with their print counterparts.