It’s easy to criticize TV and radio news. So much of it is shallow, sensational or both. It’s also easy to dismiss the criticism as uninformed, ill intentioned or both. Much of it is. But when the criticism comes from someone like Ira Glass, it might be worth paying attention. Glass is the host of [...]
Have you ever watched a television news story or read something in print or online and wondered afterwards what on earth it was about? It happens all too often when stories have no focus. Reporters who spend much of their day collecting information, pictures and sound seem to feel obliged to cram as much as [...]
Those words and phrases recently banned by a top executive at Tribune Broadcasting have turned up on television. All 117 of them. In the same piece. I suppose it was a no brainer to poke fun at the list this way, but in a surprise move the ridicule comes from Tribune itself. Literally. Larry Mendte, [...]
Mike Schuh has been covering daily news at the same station in Baltimore for 17 years, winning a Murrow and several Emmy awards along the way. His official title is general assignment reporter at WJZ-TV, but he prefers to describe himself as a storyteller. So when I asked him how young journalists can improve their [...]
When newsrooms cut editorial staff–as so many have in the past couple of years–are typos and grammatical errors the inevitable result? The Washington Post’s ombudsman, Andy Alexander, admits there are more errors in the print paper and “clearly reduced staffing plays some role.” But a bigger reason for the increasing number of mistakes, he asserts, [...]
Shocking! Tragic! Unbelievable! Not the stories that came with those labels attached, but the way they’re written. It’s shocking how many worthless adjectives are being crammed into the average newscast! Tragic to think that many writers may not know better. And unbelievable that nothing is being done about it. Television newscasts these days are awash [...]
KGO-TV reporter Wayne Freedman has been telling stories for 30 years, and for almost that long, he’s been willing to tell the rest of us how he does it. In his book, It Takes More than Good Looks To Succeed at TV News Reporting, Wayne shares some of his trade secrets.
When it comes to writing, what works on TV or in print doesn’t necessarily work on the Web. Stories that begin with an anecdotal lead may send online readers clicking away, if they can’t figure out quickly what the story is about. Many broadcast journalists have taken to rewriting their stories for the Web by [...]
One of my favorite quotes about writing comes from the journalist Gene Fowler: Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. Producing a TV news story is easy, too. You just choose the right elements and put them together in the [...]
Great writers read. They read fiction, non-fiction, and books about writing. Here are some suggestions to get you started. If you want to read them in a whole new way, consider a Kindle! And if you’re teaching journalism, we also have a list of textbooks to consider. Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia [...]
Smaller staffs, shorter deadlines and more platforms to feed. Is it any wonder mistakes get on the air and online? In today’s short-handed, 24/7 newsrooms, it’s more important than ever for anyone involved in producing content to double check it for accuracy. Don’t think someone else will catch even the most obvious errors. They won’t. [...]
We’ve all heard the complaints. We’ve even voiced them ourselves. Can’t anybody write anymore? What was that reporter thinking when he described a community that was “gripped in a veil of controversy?” And the anchor who said spectators at a baseball game “hurled racial epitaphs” at a player must not have been thinking at all. [...]
Language is always changing, so it’s no surprise to find a few new words in the latest edition of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. Among this year’s additions are two media terms: vlog and webisode. But the simple fact that a word is in the dictionary doesn’t make it suitable for use in a news story. Some [...]
What are the building blocks of great stories? Ira Glass of “This American Life” certainly knows. The program aired weekly on many NPR stations, explores a theme from various angles. The program is always insightful, often surprising. In 2008, “This American Life” won a Peabody Award for a comprehensive look at the origins of the [...]