Conventions of radio news bulletins

Conventions of radio news bulletins

 Key Terms:

·        Convention- features/things we expect to hear/see- extened bulletin.

·        Jingle- short piece of music that introduces the bulletin.

·        Intro-Newsreader’s introduction. Involves a greeting, time check and newsreader’s name.

·        Copy story- most basic type of news story. Three of four simple sentences. Read by newsreader. No audio played.

·        Cue- introduction to a story, will hear additional audio to further explain story. Two simple sentences. One ‘in-line’ to introduce the audio…

·        …and clip- sometimes called ‘cut’. V15-20 second piece of audio taken from an interview.

·        … and voicer- sometimes called and Voicepiece (VP) 30-40 seconds long. Recorded by another journalist; provides more detail- often used for more complicated stories. E.g. court reporting. 

·        …and vox pop- Short for ‘Vox populi’- Latin for ‘voice of the people’ 15-20 second piece of audio featuring approx. 4 or 5 different voices. Gives opinion of ‘people on the street’

·        …and two-way. Used in longer bulletins, often used for live stories. Sometimes done in studio or ‘on location’

·        … and wrap. Combination of clip and voicer; Reporter reads a voicer but embedded within is a clip of someone related to the story. Can be several clips embedded within. Usually lasts 40-50 seconds.

·        O.B. Stands for ‘outside broadcast’ Some radios have an OB truck- satellite link which allows them to bradcast live from an event/scene. Is usually live, mobile phone technology is making it easier to record O.B. and emailing it back to studio. Great for setting the scene.

·        Back-anno, short for ‘back announcement’ Used after a longer piece of audio.

·        Stab (sting) Very short version of the jingle. Used to separate parts of the bulletin. Some stations have different Stabs.

·        Bed- Music no lyrics plays under the newsreader talking. Often used for sports news. Tends to be used on radio stations with a younger target audience.

·        S.O.C. Standard Out Cue. The bit at the end of the bulletin! Might ‘signpost’ to audience to check your website or to tell them when the next bulletin is.  

Rules of Writing Radio

Hello all, Last week in my AS Media leeson we discussed the basic rules of writing for radio. This was throughly intresting as I never knew it could be so simple! Here are the notes I took down.

Basic rules of writing for radio

 1. Write as if you are talking to a friend- use contractions like don’t can’t and shouldn’t.

2. Who- is involved? What- has happened/is happening? Where- did it happen/ is happening. Where- is it happening. Why- has it happened (How) has it happened/ happening?

 3. KISS Keep It Simple Stupid! Simple sentences- one idea. Avoid commas! keep it simple for the audience.

 4. Two or three sentences for a cue. Four for a copy story.

 5. Write numbers as words. This helps for reading news live. E.g. 2010 as two thousand at ten.

 6. Joe Bloggs, 17 from Newport. This doesn’t make sense when read aloud so it is changed to Joe Bloggs- who’s seventeen from Newport.

 7. When writing a cue, make sure you don’t repeat what is said in the clip! Paraphrase the first line of audio or sum up what is going to be said.

 8. Write names of people or places phonetically (if they aren’t said how they are spelt)

 9. Round up statistics and put them in context. E.g. 260,00 hectares= the size of three football fields. It’s easier for the audience to understand.

 10. Don’t use ‘today’ in the top line of the story! The audience should assume events are taking place ‘today’ - otherwise why are you telling them about it today. You can use ‘this morning’ or ‘this afternoon’ though to be more specific if necessary.

 11. Don’t use quotations from people in the news reader’s script. The only quotes we should hear are from the person themselves. An exception to this might be using one or two words in the top line of a cue- if we’re then going to hear from that person themselves as a clip.

 12. Avoid abbreviations unless they’re very commonly known amongst the public. E.g. NATO would be acceptable but CTKC wouldn’t be.

 13. READ IT ALOUD to ensure it reads correctly! Sometimes words look fine written down but read aloud, they don’t make sense or might be an awkward tongue twister or an unintentional rhyme!

Preliminary Task

Hello everybody!

This is my media studies group preliminary task!

This was a ton of fun to make and awesome to work on. This made me feel like a real radio presenter and had a blast! This was made with myslef Olivia and Frankie. It was so awesome to do and it's made me look forward to the real deal.

Enjoy!

Approaching Preliminary task

Hello all.

In class we were asked to produce a preliminary task radio bulletin. My group for this task and myself thought that this would be really fun and we keenly approached this. We decieded to make a modern radio station called Rebel Radio and  We made a script for the presenter to read and the celebrities below:

Script

Max: Welcome back to Rebel Radio. I’m your host Max and joining me in the studio this morning are Olivia and Frankie from Rogue, who have just won the award for best upcoming band at the Sony Music awards! So how are you both?

Max: Did you think you stood a chance?

Frankie: blah blah blah black honey were very good contenders as well as the spring kings- their latest album had a massive fan base on twitter but really, they didn’t stand a chance

Max: Let’s have a listen to your reactions when you won the award.

( plays sound clip) Frankie&Olivia: (Laughter/Awkward comments) We’d have to thank Columbia Records for taking a risk with us. Thank you to all our fans who have supported us from day one. The rest of band for being so great to create music with, it’s a joy to perform with them. Thank you and here’s to the future!

Max: Thank you very much for your time, it’s been a pleasure having you on the show this morning. Good luck for the future.Stay Rogue

Olivia: Such a cheap joke!

Frankie: (Laughter) Cheers Max.  

End

This was very fun to write as it required a modern tone of writing to make it appeal to a younger audience. We enjoyed ourselves very much with this task and I will post the preliminary task soon!