Baltic Film and Media School

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Baltic Film and Media School Basics of TV
Journalism Key elements I, 19.02.2008 Instruct
or Hagi Shein
Spring 2008
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What is journalism for?

• The main reason for TV journalism are informed
  citizens.
• Journalism is a form of cartography it creates a
  map for citizens to navigate society.
• The nature of journalism is to seek the truth.
• The nature of journalism is to research, report,
  analyze and comment.
• Journalism is a storytelling with a purpose.
• There is widespread agreement that journalism is
  simultaneously a business, a public service and a
  watchdog
• - Being business journalism is accountable to
  shareholders just like any other business.
• - As a public service journalism provides
  information to citizens for self-governance.
• - Executing watchdogs role journalism stands
  against corruption and abuse, innapropriate use
  of power.

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Therefore as a TV-journalists

• First and foremost - take your profession
  seriously!
• Think and become aware about your goals, mission
  and purpose always you take a microphone and
  camera!
• Always be aware why and what for are you actually
  doing what you do as a journalist.
• Keep high ethical standards to work as a
  journalist without trust of people is rather
  difficult, in some cases even impossible.
• Be informed and curious study, learn, be well
  informed about the fields you are covering as a
  journalist, people would like to consider you as
  professional.
• Work with and keep your sources the scope and
  quality of your sources is your main accout for
  professional investment.
• Always make a distinction between facts and
  comments facts are your main weapons and
  comments have to be relied on facts.
• Avoid personal bias when reporting your main
  goal is to provide a balanced appoach.

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Where could we find journalism on TV?

• News - newscasts, news bulletins, news series,
  news magazines (which may contain a range of
  items related to news stories, with comments and
  elements of general interest).
• Current Affairs - programs which contains
  explanation and analysis of current events and
  issues, including material dealing with political
  or industrial controversy or with public policy.
• Factual - programs which include any form of
  factual or documentary programming, features and
  coverage of special events, for example
  parliamentary proceedings, party conferences,
  portrays, hobbies/leisure programs, consumer
  programs, some reality shows etc.
• Infotainment - the blend of factual programming
  with entertaining elements and approaches.
• Factual Journalistic programmes and
  documentaries in the fields of Arts and Classical
  Music, Religious, Drama, Education and Sport

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Sub-categories of factual programming

• Serious Factual - features and documentaries
  covering social, political and other issues, for
  example, science and medical issues, nature and
  wildlife, history and other topics.
• Special Events - all special events (excluding
  sports events), such as coverage of parliamentary
  proceedings, party conferences, big public events
  etc.
• Hobbies and Leisure programs including
  gardening, homes, DIY, travel, cookery and other
  leisure pursuits.
• Consumer Affairs - programs providing consumer
  advice (on consumer, health, education, financial
  or other matters) or warnings on trading
  standards for consumers.
• Factual Entertainment programs including
  reality shows, human interest stories,
  infotainment, docusoaps, and other similar
  factual material.

http//www.ofcom.org.uk
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Production Framework for TV journalism

in studio
on location
multicamera
single
single
multicamera
events coverage sport multipurpose reportages
newscasts discussions talk infotainment
live pre-recorded
reporting events
interviews
current affairs factual vox pop police feature doc
umentary
magazines discussions commentaries infotainment ta
lk portraits
events coverage sport multipurpose reportages
interviews
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Basic forms used in TV journalism

• Reader (tell) - text is usually presented by the
  newscaster or ancor in the studio, no video, wall
  screens.
• Voice over (V/O) - story is told with video, no
  sound bites inserts the newscaster, ancor or
  reporter- journalist reads the text while video
  is playing.
• Sound on tape (SOT) - video with recorded sound,
  interviews, sound bites, narration, stand-ups,
  ending remarcks etc.
• Package - a complete story by reporter, consist
  of repoters narration (track), VO/SOT, natural
  sound, has a lead-in and a tag (at the end,
  read by the ancor), graphics etc.
• NATSOT package - story doesnt include reporters
  track, instead, the people featured in the story
  have to provide the narration all the elements
  needed for this kind of stories should be
  captured on tape.

Saturday, March 8
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Building bricks used in TV journalism

• Stand-up - reporters appearing on camera for
  introduction so that his/her presens on remote
  location is idenified and recognised
• Lead - first story of the newscast short
  introduction, first paragraph of the story
  usually read by the ancor, or presented by the
  reporter or journalist, focused on the main
  message
• Tag - final bit of information that the ancor
  reads to wrap up the story before moving on to
  comething else (conclusion, summary, question,
  statement, standpoint), close-up in case of
  reporter or journalist
• Story tie - text, what is tying or linking two
  following news or stories together by figuring
  out natural or artificial similarities between
  the events in order to achieve the feeling of
  natural storyflow

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Building bricksused in TV journalism

• Interviews - questioning public servants,
  specalists, artists etc. in order to get
  information, reveal an opinion or problem or to
  portrait peole
• Vox populi questionning - questionning ordinary
  people in order to reveal public opinion, the
  citizens voice on controversial issues
• Sound bites - including words of other people
  into the story broadcast equivalent of quotes a
  phrase, short colorful reaction, a bite of
  information from the reliable source. Dont use
  if you could say it better!
• Teases - announcements about what is comming
  later (soon) in the program in order to hold
  viewers interest and keep them tuned on

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Basic journalistic genres on TV

• News
• Editorial
• Commentary
• Disussion
• Feature
• Reportage
• Documental
• Documentary
• Talk
• Press-conference

• Informative news pieces 1,5 min
• Current affairs stories unfolding and explaning
  events and processes 2-7 min
• Feature stories - 7-12-15-30
  min
• Documentals, documentaries 15-52 min
• Discussion, talk,
• press-conferences
  30-60 min

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News

• Hard news - chronicle as concisely as possible
  the who, what, where, when, why and how of an
  event of political, economical or social nature
  in an accurate, balanced, objective and fair way.
• Soft news - human interest issues examine the
  people, places and things that shape the world,
  nation or community etc. (news we can use,
  feature elements, featurelising).
• Headline news - short flash summaries of most
  important news at given moment.
• Breaking news - news refers to something
  important happening right now, programming is
  breaked to present these news.
• Beats - news provided by beat reporters on their
  specific georaphical or topical areas.
• Investigative stories - treatments add a
  dimension beyond disclosure (what since now has
  already been made public) engages the public to
  come to judgment about something that the news
  organization feels may be wrong, or at least
  important and needs scrutiny.

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Hard news model


How?
When?
Who?
What ?
Where?
Why?
With what results?
To Whom?
What is the reason?
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Reportage

• Reportage - coverage of a particular topic or
  event, including news reporting, comments and
  analysis.
• Reportage - eye-witness genre of journalism an
  individual journalist's report of news an events,
  especially when witnessed firsthand. This style
  of reporting is often characterized by travel and
  careful observation.

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Editorial

• Editorials - are statements of opinion from the
  station management, an analyst or a commentator,
  set appart and identified as such during their
  broadcast (not to mix up with editorialising,
  what is a sneaky expression of bias through
  choice of words or visuals or subject matter)
• Categories of broadcast editorials (the
  distinctions may blur at times)
• Traditional editorial
• Commentary
• News analysis
• Traditional editorial is the opinion of station
  management. They should always be clearly labeled
  so as not to be mistaken for news coverage.
• The editorials should be based on thorough
  research, clear and logical argumentation and
  solid ethical ground.

Irvin Fang (1980).Television News. Radio News.
Rada Press
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Commentary

• Commentary - unlike editorial commentary is the
  voice of an individual member of the news
  department, generally respected journalist. It
  should always be identified as such.
• Commentary - a critical explanation, analysis
  (analytical journalistic commentaries),
  interpretation mostly on economical, foreign
  policy, social policy and cultural issues.
• Commentary - a detailed running account of the
  action of an event, especially a sports event, as
  it occurs or unfolds
• Commentary - skilled judgement of the merits of
  literary or artistic works
• If recognised key journalists appear with a
  commentary and advocate a position on a public
  issue, it should be based on thorough reseach and
  solid ethical ground and take into consideration
  important sides of the question.
• If a journalist takes a position one way or
  another, he/she has to be prepared for
  contraversial reactions.

Irvin
Fang (1980).Television News. Radio News. Rada
Press
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Feature

• News are what people watch or consume, features
  are what people remember.
• Feature stories are not news, however they could
  be based on news. But they go deeper inside the
  issues and events and processes, they explore the
  life to reflect its variety. Feature stories are
  stories about the life itself and people around
  us, as we as journalists conceive and perceive
  it.
• The best feature stories touch on universal
  themes in life, themes that remind us just how
  similar we are when it comes to hopes and dreams
  and fears. These stories help readers find
  meaning in life (Tom Halmann).
• The best of these feature stories are built on
  strong, in-depth reporting and writing. The
  reporter-journalist must enter a character's
  world and then find a story and report it in a
  way that makes viewers not just think about
  facts, but feel (Tom Halmann).

Tom Hallman, Jr. won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for
Feature Writing
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Types of Features

• Personality profiles - personality profile bring
  an audience closer to a person in or out of the
  news. Interviews and observations, as well as
  creative writing, are used to paint a vivid
  picture of the person. The genre makes use of
  archival film footage, interviews, testimonials,
  and fair degree of editorialising by the
  voice-over commentary.
• Human interest stories - to show a subjects
  oddity or its practical, emotional, or
  entertainment value.
• Trend stories - to examine people, things or
  organizations that are having an impact on
  society. Trend stories are popular because people
  are excited to read or hear about the latest
  fads.
• In-depth stories - through extensive research
  and interviews, in-depth stories, provide a
  detailed account well beyond a basic news story
  or feature.
• Backgrounders - add meaning to current issues in
  the news by explaining them further bring
  audience up-to-date, explaining how this country,
  this organization, this person happens to be
  where it is now.

Bruce Itule Douglas Anderson, News Writing and
Reporting for Todays Media,
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Documentary

• Documentaries factual features, fact-based
  films that depicts actual events and persons,
  stories told in greather depth - are symbols of
  journalistic integrity.
• Two approaches - documentaries with journalistic
  approach (social commentary) and with artistic
  approach (broader generalisations).
• Journalistic documentaries - mostly exploring
  controversial social issues. A sign of what is
  best is that the documentary has produced a
  change a new law, a better business, someone
  leaving office, a conviction for fraud, change of
  attitiudes or behaviour, strong emotions etc.
• Lenght 12, 26, 52 minutes
• Types and styles
• observational, investigative, historical
  (compilations,stills-in motion),
• cinema verite (direct cinema), adventure,
  anthropological, nature, political, social,
  cultural, portraits etc.

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Basic jobs on the editorial desk

• Content
• Reporter broadcast journalists not specialised
  on covering particular type of stories or topical
  areas, working on assignments
• Beat reporter reporters covering a specificge
  ographical or topical area
• Correspondent (on-the-scene reporter) - a
  journalists or commentators, who contributes
  reports to television news from a remote, often
  distant, location.
• Commentator experienced journalists or experts
  who discuss and analyse social, political or
  cultural issues or events, typically in a public
  context
• Journalist more experienced journalist who
  research and present infomation, work on beats,
  topical areas, investigative stories, features,
  comments an analysis

Often combined functions
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Famous US ancors and experts about news
CBS
Ed Foughty
Dan Rather
NBS
Tom Brocaw
AV Westin
Peter Jennings
ABS
Nancy Maynard
News you can use"
http//www.pbs.org/newshour/media/evening_news/
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Basic jobs

• Backpack journalist
• multimedia journalist, solo journalist, "sojo,
  freelancer, stringer
• reporters who videotape themselves, get their
  own shots, and put together their own stories. It
  is common for a backpack journalist to be a free
  lancer, Jack on all trades and masters of none,
  finding their stories wherever they can, and
  selling them to the highest bidder. It is also
  common for major stations to have a backpack
  journalist a few hours away, or a day away, who
  can get stories not normally reached because of
  the distance.

http//everything2.com/index.pl?nodeBackpack20Jo
urnalism
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Basic jobs on the editorial desk

• Content management
• News Director oversees entire news operation
  and administration, sometimes including
  documentaries, editorials, special releases.
• Editor-in-chief - daytime, night-time content
  editors, copy editors, desk, in chief) people
  who editing texts formating, structuring,
  improving texts.
• Assignment editor - assigns reporters and
  photographers to news stories, coordinates news
  teams through the day.
• Content Editor, Copywriter - writes texts for
  ancors, readers, v/o, teased, tags etc.
• Ancor (newscaster), reads news on air,
  introduces stories, makes studio interviews,
  talks to remote correspondents, may write and
  edit own material.

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Basic jobs on the editorial desk

• Production
• Producer - is responsible for a single newscast
  each day, decides what stories will be aired, at
  what length, in what order (sometimes editor
  in chief, sometimes director, sometimes news
  producer)
• Associate Producer - assists producer, writes
  copy,does basic newsgathering, may assist
  reporters on special series reoprts, may cover
  stories from off-camera
• Director - has charge of actual presentation of
  newscast, including studio cameras and videotape
  projection
• Assistant director assists the director of
  actual presentation of newscast, including studio
  cameras and videotape projection
• Editor or video editor - cuts the video and sound
  together to makes a finished product that goes
  to the air
• Photojournalist - shoots the video, could also
  cut the video and sound working with a script
  written and voiced by the reporter

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To be a broadcast journalist you must

• be highly motivated and be interested in news and
  current affairs
• be able write clearly and concisely, and to speak
  clearly and distinctly for broadcasting
• have research, networking and interviewing skills
  
• understand relevant technology,
  to operate recording equipment or cameras if
  necessary
• understand ethical standards and the law relating
  to journalism
• be able to work under pressure and meet tight
  deadlines
• be inquisitive, with an eye for a story and an
  interest in people and events
• be confident, patient, able to face criticism and
  have a good memory

http//www.learndirect-advice.co.uk/