The Best (And Worst) of Broadcast

Chapter 19 is a nice review of the basics for writing broadcast copy.

Writing for TV and radio presents new and different challenges compared to writing for a print publication. The concept of news changes for this media to emphasize timeliness above all else. Likewise, key audio or visual impact and is key to telling a good story.

Sometimes some of the limitations of broadcast really annoy me. For instance, I hate that readers need to be limited to 30 seconds. I feel that a lot of the story is cut out and you don't do the story justice. I also get annoyed that things are deemed important simply because they have a visual. Though, this is also true in newspapers where audiences are drawn to photographs rather than text.

Writing for broadcast also takes a lot of creativity. The writer must use syntax that is simplistic and straightforward while not being overly simplistic or demeaning. It's also difficult to vary syntax because the story needs to be easily understood on the first read through--there's no chance to go back and clarify.

I thought the section on formatting copy for broadcast was kind of elementary. I've used ENPS for Newswatch and all of the elements of the broadcast can be incorporated and printed off easily. I guess we're lucky to have the technology we do because I can't imagine trying to put on a newscast with only typewriters. As it is for Newswatch, we print 4 copies of a 60+ page script for each broadcast.