Air Words

Description

Praised by both students and journalists for its no-nonsense instructional approach, accessible writing style, and extensive supply of practical exercises, Air Words is a comprehensive newswriting text that is designed to help students learn the fundamental sentence structure and grammar required to write for broadcast news. It is carefully designed to guide students through a progression of news situations, from a simple lead story to a complex remote video field report. The fourth edition brings the book up to date with numerous changes that have occurred in the last decade of broadcast journalism.

New to this Edition

• Revised and expanded chapters that: - survey the integration of online, smart phone, e-tablet and social media for presentation - explore social media's important ethical and legal quandaries - introduce comprehensive producing strategies that consider broadcast, online, and mobile devices
• A new focus on multimedia journalism and convergence skills (broadcast and new media)
• 20 new and several reworked exercises that are ideal for class and group projects
• A new chapter concentrating on visual sequences and their logic
• A companion website (www.oup.com/us/hewitt) that features a new Instructor's Manual with solutions to the book's exercises and additional exercises for students
• New graphics emphasizing workbook mastery learning and methodology

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE: UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE NEEDS
Who is watching, listening, logging on?
What audience research tells us
Traditional news values
Spoken news strengths
On-line strengths
Different approaches to news
Flow and rhythm of spoken news
The Enterprise Journalist
Research made easier
On-line research

CHAPTER TWO: MAKING MAJOR CHANGES
Writing for ears versus writing for the eyes
Start with short sentences
Eliminate long introductory phrases
Short intros
Misplaced phrases
Nested phrases
Elliptical sentences
Punctuation
What to exclude
Rounding off and writing out numbers
Reading copy

CHAPTER THREE: GRAMMAR AND WORD CHOICE
Concise words and phrases
Wordy verbs
Negative verbs
Adjectives
Sensational language/loaded words
Buzzwords and jargon
Unnecessary words
Repetition
Phrases
Attribution
Active and passive voice
Changing the voice
Verb forms
Reference problems

CHAPTER FOUR: WRITING THE LEAD SENTENCE
Importance of the lead sentence
One night's leads
Avoiding hype
Categories of leads
Impact
New story/breaking news
Reaction
Folo, second-day, update
Perspective
Exception and irony
Segue
Feature
Leads to Avoid
Jammed
Cliché
Rhetorical questions
Un-attributed quotes

CHAPTER FIVE: COMPLETING THE STORY ESSENTIALS
Essential items
Scope
Controversy and cause and effect
The why or what
Future
Payoffs

CHAPTER SIX: GATHERING USEFUL SOUNDBITES
Actualities and soundbites
Planning interviews to get results
Selecting interviewees
Testing interviewees
Asking the right questions
Pulling bites
How short
Trimming bites
Ethical considerations

CHAPTER SEVEN: USING SOUNDBITES
Adding soundbites changes the design
Placement within stories
Writeups
Rules for writeups
Identification
Short complete sentence
No repetition
Avoid throwaways
Tags
Writing the story with a soundbite

CHAPTER EIGHT: BUILDING PACKAGES WITH SOUNDBITES AND TRACKS
Composing packages
Recognizing different approaches
Lead-ins
Classic models
Altered chronology
Particular-to-general model
Writing tracks
First track
Middle tracks
Last tracks

CHAPTER NINE: WRITING TO STILL VISUALS
Visuals as tools
Rules for writing to visuals
Partial screen graphics
Over-the-shoulder topic boxes
Full screen CGs
Length of visual on screen
Full screen graphics
CGs to display facts
Script notations
The reveal

CHAPTER TEN: THE VIDEO SEQUENCE
Video sequences
Important sequence considerations
Establishing shots
Continuity
Alternate types of shots
Vary shot length
Use reaction shots
Avoid lifeless shots
Look for depth in shots
Never use the same shot
Sensationalism dangers

CHAPTER ELEVEN: WRITING TEXT FOR THE VO
The VO's various forms
Steps to the VO story
Twin streams concept
Rules for writing the VO text
Common problems with the VO story

CHAPTER TWELVE: WRITING THE VO/SOUND STORY
VO/SOUND is complex
Production difficulties
Writeups and visual cover
A second VO or tag
Steps to the VO/Sound story

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: BREAKING NEWS PACKAGES AND FEATURES
The news package
Breaking news versus features
Steps to building a package
What to do at the location
Standups
Reviewing field video
Tracks
Rules for tracks
Writing tracks with the lead-in in mind
Laying out the story

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: LIVE SHOTS AND REMOTES
Live remotes are popular
Pressure and live shots
Production and ethical dilemmas
Live shot production possibilities
Rules for live shot design

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: PRODUCERS DEVELOP STORIES
Gatekeeping
Producer's job
News of the day
Developing stories
Checking feeds
Assigning stories
Reviewing scripts for fairness

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: PRODUCING EFFECTIVE NEWSCASTS
General considerations for newscasts
Non-commercial versus commercial
First third of newscast
Middle of newscast
Final third of newscast
Clustering
Headlining stories
Wraps
Segues
Single versus multiple anchors
Pacing
Predictability
Teases
Tosses
Junk pages
Stacking the newscast
Finding the news hole
Update the story pool
Choosing the lead stories
Assigning times and checking totals
Final rundown
Reviewing scripts
Accuracy
Plausibility
Backtiming
On-air decisions

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ON-AIR NEWS AND WEBSITE COORDINATION
Internet's new delivery channels
Convergence of options
Shuttling stories to the website or podcast
Features done for website only
Internet tags for on-air stories
Live feeds or raw field video
Social media
Extending the playing field
Gathering feedback
Soliciting user submissions


CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: ETHICS AND LEGAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Traditional ethical questions
Ethics in the Internet age
The consequences of a news story
News agency policy books on ethics
Ethics questions
Reporting
Writing
Using video and interviews
Using audio
Exercise in ethical discussion
Defamation
Libel, slander and invasion of privacy
Why study defamation law
Conditions for libel
Negligence or malice
Private versus public persons
Consent
Privileged situations
Statute of limitations
Defenses