Task 3 - Forms and Styles of News Reporting

Assignment 3 – Forms and Styles of News Reporting

·       Bulletin

A news bulletin includes 3-6 stories, showing international and national news, local news, sport, entertainment and weather.

·       Headline

A brief outline of the big news stories at the time, including a small amount of information.

·       Copy Only

Copy only stories have no need for audio; they are often used for public service information and local events. Sometimes they also include funny one liners when concluding the story with a “and finally.”

·       Copy with Audio

These are stories that are made up of clips from an interview; these clips would be 8-20 seconds long each. These clips would create an audio impact – it lets the audio tell the story. To make the audience feel the sense of atmosphere, the microphone would be placed somewhere there is background noise.

·       Wrap

This is a completely wrapped package, everything into one; it includes another reporter plus audio. It slots into a bulletin and is set out ‘intro – clip – conclusion’.

·       Vox Pop

A vox pop is recording of a member/members of the public discussing their views on something that is being discussed on the radio. It would usually be recorded outdoors usually in a city centre where there’s a lot of general public.

·       Two Way

A two way is when there are two people talking in the same room.

·       Live Cross

This is when the presenter goes live to another presenter in a different location, for example a report from the war in Iraq, which would include the background sound of the war-taking place.

·       Ident

This is a small recording to remind the audience what radio station they are listening too, this can go in-between the news stories to break the news broadcast up.

·       Voicers

A voicer is a short report read by another reporter and unlike a wrap it does not include an audio clip.

Metro Radio

The news report began with a story about a convicted murderer on the run, he has also escaped twice before, this was a copy and audio broadcast as it included a recording of a police officer giving some information on the situation. This is to show the public that they are in safe hands and the police are working hard to get the situation under control. The next story was a Murder enquiry by a 37-year-old man in Huddersfield, there are currently children being treated in hospital. A 39-year-old man has been arrested. This was an audio report, as they couldn’t include audio, as they haven’t got enough information about the situation yet. After, there was a story on how BT are creating 1600 engineering jobs, and 180 of those are in the North East, this is appealing to Metro Radio’s target audience as it is based in the North East and people in the North East would find it useful to know there are jobs going near home. Next, there was a story on Ryan Air and how they have had a fall in profit, they made £426 million; this was also a copy piece as it didn’t include an audio clip as it wasn’t a very important story so it didn’t require one. The next story was about Ant and Dec and how there should be more acting jobs for children in the North East and how they are thinking about buying the building Byker Grove was filmed in, to help the cause. This was a copy and audio story as Dec was interviewed and voiced his opinion on the matter. This is an effective story to feature on Metro Radio as it is specific to their target audience as it talks about the North East and includes Ant and Dec – some of the biggest stars to come out of the North East. The broadcast then continued by talking about how they won an award at the BAFTA’s and then continued onto talking about the other winners of the night. This was a copy file, as it didn’t include any audio, as it didn’t require one. This was the last news story but the weather followed, this was jus general weather.

BBC Radio 1

This news report began with a story on how police want ticket inspectors for concerts to be stricter as more and more people are making it into the concerts with fake tickets, this is specific to the stations target audience as the ages range is 16 – 24 which is the most common age of people who go to concerts. This story was a two way as there were two presenters talking. The next story was on Turkey and how there have been protests against the government because of the worst mining experience, killing 200 people, this story was copy as it didn’t require any audio, it was all information. Next, was a story on how charities are working with paedophiles helping them with their ‘views’ towards children, and how the charity can’t cope with the amount of offenders who require help. This was copy and audio as it included a female charity worker talking about how they can’t deal with the amount of calls they are receiving. Next, was the sports reports which were all copy, which lead straight into the weather which was also copy.