Chapter 8: News Production

1
Chapter 8 News Production
2
News Production

• Radio news people produce their own material.
• News personnel can receive wire stories,
  write/rewrite, record and edit audio cuts and
  embed audio into stories using a single computer
  program.
• Newscasts are read from a computer screen, sound
  bites stored on hard drive.

3
Newscasts

• News people record an edit sound bites that have
  been received over the phone, recorded in the
  field, from a television audio source and
  Internet sources.
• Ethical questions How much do we edit and mix
  when it comes to news? Change reality?
• Sound bites, other elements must be edited to fit
  within newscast.
• News format and style designed according to
  stations target audience.

4
Long-Form Programming

• Long-form programming?
• Longer than five-minute
• newscast, often 30-minute
• public-affairs programs.
• Usually produced by news department,
• PA programs required by FCC.
• Good for retrieving archival cuts.
• Production people serve more as engineers than
• producers for news programming.

5
Sound bites and nat sound (not in text)

• Keep sound bites to 20 seconds or less usually
  edit yourself out.
• Best sound bites express opinion or emotion, not
  basic facts write facts into your script.
• Must have a clean start and end.
• Edit out false starts, but leave in normal pauses
  and hesitancies.
• Must be clearly audible.

6
Sound bites and nat sound (cont.)

• Natural sound adds to the
• believability of news.
• Look for natural sounds in the
• events you cover.
• Natural sound should not dominate a radio
• (or TV) news story. Little goes a long way.
• You might start and end story with nat
• sound, perhaps bring it back in the middle.
• Usually better not to run it through entire
  story.
• Nat sound in background of sound bites is good if
  
• it does not overwhelm the voice.