Part two of two-day unit on basics of broadcast news writing. Focus is on writing to video and choosing soundbites

1. Broadcast
News Writing
JCM 331

2. Writing to Video
 WHAT YOU’RE DOING
 Matching what you see
(on screen) with what
you say (in the script)
 ADDING more to the
video that is playing
 COMPEL people to keep
watching
 REMEMBER- SWAP
Synchronized
Words
And
Pictures
 HOW YOU’RE DOING IT
1. Examine facts; Get a
general out of the story
2. LOG YOUR FOOTAGE
(watch your video, make
a listing of what you
have)
3. MATCH video to facts
you have
4. Locate distinctive shots
(help DEFINE the story)
5. Write your story
6. After edit video – read it
with video playing to
make sure it matches

3. Let’s PRACTICE
• Raw video of Hurricane Florence-affected areas
• More raw video
• Edited video from North Carolina
My video log
Video clip 1
- Waves crashing into houses and
sandbags
- Closeups/Wideshots of waves
Video clip 2
- :00-:08 CU pix of evacuation route,
signs
- :08-:13 Medium shots of onlookers
capturing video of storm approaching
- :19-:24 Waves coming in
- :34- Storm surge causes water to
come in flood streets; cars driving
through water
- 1:18- more pics of beachfront home
Edited video
- Morehead city north carolina –
damaged gas station– no power
- Building destroyed in morehead city
- Blowing trees/rain in Wilmington, NC

4. THE FACTS
• By the time Florence bore down on the Carolinas on Friday, about 20,000
people had sought refuge at one of 200 Red Cross shelters across the region.
• Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, N.C., at 7:15 a.m.
on Friday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm hit
with estimated maximum winds of 90 mph.
Storm is Category 1, but it still packs quite a powerful punch. Wilmington, a
city in southeastern North Carolina, was hit with wind gusts of 105 mph on
Friday morning, the strongest in a half-century, according to the National
Weather Service.
• Gusts of up to 70 miles per hour have been recorded nearby in Topsail Beach,
N.C.
Across North Carolina, 185,312 people are currently without power, the
state’s department of emergency management said
• The wind gusts were the most powerful since Hurricane Helen crashed into
Wilmington on Sept. 27, 1958, the Weather Service said.

6. Broadcast News Writing
 General Conventions of Broadcast Writing
 Story Structure
 Writing to Video
 Choosing Good Soundbites

7. Tips to Remember when
choosing soundbites
• Use soundbites for opinions,
ideas and emotion
• Bites should run 5-15
seconds long
• Pick a soundbite that says
something significant,
unique, distinctive or
noteworthy
• Avoid using soundbites
where subject of your
interview says something
factually inaccurate
• MAKE SURE what is said is
factually correct

8. SOUNDBITES
• “Football is joe Burrow If football wasn’t in my life, I don’t know what I would be doing”.
• “Our whole family has been football. So it’s just a carry-on of the old family tradition”
• “I played football at Nebraska. My brother played football at Ole miss. I have two older boys that played at Nebraska.
• “It was just part of who we were. He really didn’t have any choice, but he loved it from start and really committed to it”
• “Football is life for us. “
• “We won a big game in overtime. He made some throws and I’m saying hey, those look pretty good for somebody in the sixth or
seventh grade”
• “they didn’t offer me. It’s pretty simple. I wanted to go there. But they didn’t offer me”
• I’m not going to lie to you. We were pretty disappointed. He learned how to ride a bicycle on Memorial Stadium when I was
working with Coach Solich. We just kind of always assumed that’s where he would be. “
• “I honestly hated the Buckeyes growing up because my dad coaching at OU and fell in love with in their recruiting process. “
• “It was a challenge because we’re obviously battling for our careers and for our families. We were trading blows headmaker blows
in practice every day
• “the opportunity was there. I fell in love with the place when I came on my visit. “
• “The first day of sprints, he won almost every spring, kept his mouth shut, worked hard in the weight room, got along with the
guys, always throwing on his own extra, always in the film room he led by example”
• “that’s really what you got to do if you’re going to lead a team”
• If you can’t follow directions when you’re tired during the summer, you’re not going to be very good against Auburn in the fourth
quarter when you’re tired and there’s a 100thousand screaming fans in your ear. So that’s what I was trying to show”.. You learn
how to be a lead a team and how to handle a football team when your dad’s a coach”

9. The feature
Here’s Marty Smith’s story as it aired on ESPN

10. LET’S PRACTICE
• What soundbite would you choose
from this interview clip with a
published author?