TELEVISION AND RADIO NEWS WRITING TECHNIQUES

 The term broadcast writing will be used interchangeably for television and radio news writing throughout this publication.The process of writing an effective television and radio news story first.

Writing for the Eye and Ear

Writing for radio and television is different from writing for print for several reasons.

First, In for radio and television present news information less space and time . Therefore, It is essential to prioritize and summarize the information carefully in radio and television. 

Second , In print writings for eyes but in Television the story must read well to your eye and  listeners cannot reread sentences when a listener hears the story it has to read well to “the ear.”

Also for a radio news story, must paint word pictures with the words, images just through your verbal descriptions.

news writing in  Television and radio.

·         The writing style should be conversational. Write the way as talk.

·         Each sentence should be brief and contain only one idea. Do not always talk in long sentences. Shorter sentences are better in broadcast news writing. Each sentence should focus on one particular idea.

·         Be simple and direct.  too much of  information mislead the  audience and they are tend to avoid to grasp. Choose words that are familiar to everyone.

·         Read the story out loud. 

 Television and Radio News Writing Structure

·         Be brief. A  story on television or radio may have to fit into 30 seconds—perhaps no more than 100 words. If it is an important story, it may be 90 seconds or two minutes. It is essential to  condense  the  information into the most important points for broadcast writing.

·         Use correct grammar. It will enhance credibility of the news story.

·         Put the important information first. It essential to maintain a writing style like that  the important information first.

·         Write good leads. Begin the story with clear, precise information. Because broadcast stories have to fit into 30, 60, or 90 seconds

·         Stick to short sentences of 20 words or less.  Long sentences make it difficult for the person voicing the script to take a breath.

·         Write the way people talk. Sentence fragments—as long as they make sense—are acceptable.

·         Use contractions. Use don’t instead of do not

·         Use simple subject−verb−object sentence structures.

·         Use the active voice and active verbs. It is better to say “Sita meet Rama.  than “Sita was met by Ram.”

·         Use present-tense verbs, except when past-tense verbs are necessary. Present tense expresses the sense of immediacy. Use past tense when something happened long ago.

·         For radio news stories, write with visual imagery. Visualize the situation that is essential.  Make listeners to “see” what they are listening..

·         Use a person’s complete name 

·          use phonetic spellings for unfamiliar words and words 

·         Omit obscure names and places if they are not meaningful to the story.

·         Titles precede names; therefore, avoid emparrassing.

·          Do not write, “Uthayakumar, Minister of culture, said today….” Instead, write, “Cultural minister Uthayakumar said today….” 

·         In age reference, precede the name with the age. (Example: “The victim, 21-year-old Rob Roy…”)

·         AVOID WRITING DIRECT QUOTATIONS INTO A NEWS script, Instead, let people say things in their own words during soundbites.

·          A SOUNDBITE is the exact words spoken by someone in his or her own recorded voice.

·         THE ATTRIBUTION should come before a quotation, the attribution of paraphrased quotations in broadcast stories should be at the beginning of the sentence, before the paraphrase.

·         AVOID MOST ALL ABBREVIATIONS, even on second reference, unless it is a well-known abbreviation. This is different from the Associated Press Style rules for print stories.

·         AVOID SYMBOLS WHEN YOU WRITE. For example, the dollar sign ($) should never be used in broadcast writing. Always spell out the word “dollar.”

·         USE CORRECT PUNCTUATION. Do not use semicolons. Use double dash marks for longer pauses than commas. Use underlines for emphasis.

·         ROUND OFF NUMBERS UNLESS THE EXACT NUMBER IS SIGNIFICANT. (Example: Use “a little more than 150 crores,” not “150 croes 50 lakhs,