broadcast journalism - elsevierv5.books.elsevier.com/bookscat/samples/... · a career in broadcast...

BOYD ch001.tex 23/11/2007 17: 53

Part One

BROADCAST JOURNALISM

BOYD ch001.tex 23/11/2007 17: 53

BOYD ch001.tex 23/11/2007 17: 53

THE PRINCIPLES OF BROADCASTJOURNALISM

1 A career in broadcastjournalism

Shall we start with the anti-social hours? Then the stress, flogging to meet constantdeadlines in a world that never sleeps, and time wasted on dubious blogs, vlogs andwebsites or having the ear burned hot on a ‘phone by someone with a conspiracytheory that links the CIA and the Mafia with your local football team in some globalevil. Add some disrupted family life, or your social life is disturbed because youleave the party when you hear that a plane has crashed into city hall. Sometimesyou don’t even want to sleep in case something …happens!

Then you read about that man-with-a-tan who gets a dream salary for presentingnews – but stick with reality; your annual pay is about the same as his lunchexpenses this week. Or there’s a woman on the radio who is being paid, yes paid,to report from a country you’ve always longed to visit. But they both had to startsomewhere.

But then you might think: I can make money in London banking, or on WallStreet, or in Hong Kong or Singapore. Maybe, you just want something else?Maybe you just don’t fancy a day job after all?

A school student summed it up very neatly for every hopeful broadcast journalistin the world when she wrote in a Pittsburgh newspaper about what her journalismtutors told her: ‘They made it clear that while you may not become rich doing thework, your life would be exciting.’∗

Why bother?

Few professions can match broadcast journalism for its rewards in terms of jobsatisfaction, interest, variety, excitement, experiences, creativity – and for the selectfew – fame and wealth.

∗ Sarah Nolan, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in September 2007.

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4 Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News

So what does it take to become a player in the world of broadcasting? The radioand television presenter and journalist, Jeremy Vine, says you should never take nofor an answer and never stop knocking until the door has fallen off its hinges. ‘Bevery aware of what you want to do – people come into my Radio 2 studio and saythey want to work there and it transpires they’ve never even heard the programme.Volunteer for everything; don’t just work for the rota – come in on your days off. Weget students who come in to watch the programme, and they’re thinking: “ShouldI offer to do something?” and we’re looking at them, thinking: “Why haven’t theyoffered?” But it’s up to them to force their way on to the programme.’

In the last edition of this book we listed some qualities needed for a first stage.They were: evidence of commitment to journalism, in the form of articles pub-lished at school, university or in the press, relevant work experience in radio or onnewspapers is also an advantage.

These are as sound now as they were 5 years ago. There are some other qualitiesto add.

You need to have:

• A passionate and endless interest in news and current affairs, about everythingfrom your town to the entire world.

• A refusal to accept that everything on the Internet is truth. Be sceptical and checkdomain/website ownership.

• An understanding that Google and Wikipedia are not primary research sourcesbut can be used as a guide to look further.

• An ability to generate and develop ideas and to check that you have the facts toback them.

• An ability to work well in a team in a variety of roles and to communicate quicklyand clearly, especially with fast-moving digital working methods.

• An understanding of law and that you cannot lift anything you like off a websiteand assume that you can do what you want with it.

Personal qualities include:

• Initiative, commitment, motivation and energy.• Drive and resilience under pressure.• Flexibility and adaptability to cope with changing priorities.• Ability to be a good editorial all-rounder.

Underpinning all of these are two abilities wired into the minds of everyone in thenews operation: writing skills, and an understanding of the needs of the audience.This means being accurate, concise and clear. News is about people and eventsor processes that affect people. For radio and TV they only hear it once, so makesure you get into their heads first time. They cannot go back and read it again andeven if they had to do that then the words have failed. It means speling er typingerrirs on th thee webbsite or TV graffic or chart damige the credability off theeeinfirmation.

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A Career in Broadcast Journalism 5

Writing skills

Whether the news channel is in Perth, Australia, or Perth, Scotland, it means simplelanguage that most people will understand immediately. It is as if you are writingfor one person. That person may be a cross between a well-educated 12-year oldand a university professor so you explain the story in a way that makes sense to the12-year old but does not insult the intelligence of the professor.

For the spoken word it means one single thought at a time. Avoid a mass ofsub-clauses that lead to confusion.

If specialized words must be used then explain them: A jet that can fly at MachTwo may not be clear to everyone – twice the speed of sound, which ultimatelymeans that it is fast, might be better. When writing about things that can be meas-urable then look for comparisons that relate to human experience. If you havesomething described as so many acres/hectares/gallons/litres then what can peoplerelate to? How many football/rugby/baseball pitches; how many swimming poolsdoes that fill; is it the height of the Eiffel Tower or the Empire State Building? Ifa woman is riding a bicycle for charity and covers half a million miles then she’stravelled from the Earth to the Moon and back, or any similar distance you mightprefer to try.

Qualities in the broadcast journalist

Employers and training courses alike are looking for special personal qualities frompeople who think they have what it takes to make a broadcast journalist.

Top of the list is commitment. Broadcast journalists must have the stamina tocope with shift work whose varying patterns could be from midnight to 10’o clockin the morning, or in some cases working for 24 hours without sleep. Prima donnasand fragile personas that need care and constant encouragement will last only a shortwhile in the multi-tasking digital newsroom with its relentless 24-hour productionacross many platforms. He or she should also be self-reliant and capable of workingwith a minimum of guidance and supervision. The broadcast journalist will need tounderstand the importance of media ingest, multi-platform, digital workflow andmedia-meshing.

Intelligence, curiosity, creativity and writing ability are basic qualities. Added tothis, our new journalist will need those essential sparks: vitality, vivacity, energy,drive, enthusiasm – call it what you will – news editors are looking for that extrasomething that will set one applicant above all others.

Getting a foot into the door

Assuming you have taken your training course and passed with flying colours, younow need that all-elusive job in broadcast journalism. The first thing you have todo is get in, somewhere. The following blunt advice is often given to anyone whowants to be on air on a local station or on a global website: the industry has neverheard of you, and right now, it neither needs you nor wants you. Being a brilliant

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world-beater is not enough. You have to prove how good you are: market yourself,persuade them they will miss out if they don’t agree to see you. To succeed youneed wit, charm, subtlety, persistence – and heaps of talent.

The saying, it is not what you know but who you know that counts, is probablytruer of broadcasting than many other professions. Broadcasting is an industry ofmany villages. By the time a job is advertised the news editor might already havea candidate lined up, so you should make your play before the job ads appear. Thecandidate lined up has to be …you.

The best way to put yourself in the running is to visit news editors and talk tothem for 20 minutes to find out what they are looking for, tell them what you can doand see what opportunities are coming up. Plan your campaign. Begin by sendinga demonstration recording of your work and curriculum vitae (CV) or resume, andfollow these up within a week with a phone call asking for a meeting.

Your demo should be short and superb and on CD or a basic memory stick ormemory card, or even your own website link, assuming it is of good quality. It couldinclude a 3-minute radio bulletin with actuality clips (interviews with householdnames preferably, and all your own work) followed by a gripping interview of notlonger than two and a half minutes and a sparkling news report of the same length.It should be professionally presented and labelled. For TV send a short demo ofyour work on DVD following the same label principles.

Your CV/resume should be printed and well laid out. A simple format is best –a kaleidoscope of colours is irritating to read. It should give your name, address,phone and email, date of birth, relevant broadcast experience (including freelancework), broadcast training, educational qualifications, any language skills, briefrelevant details of previous employment, whether you hold a driving licence, a noteof interesting personal hobbies and achievements, and the names and addresses oftwo referees. Use a simple font such as Arial and tailor it to suit each application.Something else to think about is known as your USP – Unique Selling Point. Youdon’t need to have one, but it’s worth including. What’s special about you? Areyou an expert in something? Or did you play international sport, cross America ona skateboard, win a lawn-mower race for charity?

The novelist and writer, Robert Harris, went into the profession at 21. ‘If youhaven’t got the nous to talk your way into journalism, then you probably haven’t gotthe nous to be a journalist. To that extent, the profession is self-selecting. Persistencepays. There isn’t a conspiracy to keep good people down. And, contrary to popularmyth, people are very generous in journalism. Once you’ve got your foot in thedoor, you get a lot of help from old lags.’†

TV Journalist Richard Porter worked on a newspaper and eventually becameHead of News at BBC World: ‘I started at my local newspaper, the Newbury WeeklyNews. I answered an advert for a trainee after passing a maths A-level, and justmissing one in economics. That was in 1981 and I spent 3 years being indentured,and going on block release for my NCTJ proficiency qualification. By 1989 I was

† The Daily Telegraph, September 2003.

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Figure 1.1 Opportunities abound. Like any competitive business, you need to stand out from theothers when you apply for a job. Be prepared for that vital question – ‘Why do you want to workhere?’

Figure 1.2 Ulster Television news presenter and journalist Paul Clark: ‘be honest with yourselfand ask yourself some pertinent questions. My experience is that, because the world of broadcastjournalism is changing so rapidly, it is not so much about what qualifications you have, but theaptitude and attitude you can bring to the job.’

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working on the Western Daily Press in Bristol. Then I joined the BBC in Bristol,working on its evening regional Points West programme as a producer. I thenworked my way around the BBC in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester, beforejoining News 24 when it launched in 1997. In 2001 I became editor of BreakfastNews – horrible hours but I’ve barely ever worked nine to five.

‘My advice now would be to go to university. People now have so many quali-fications, but whatever you do you have to stand out. I also absolutely believewe should not only recruit graduates. Not having a degree didn’t stop me, at theend of the day. You need other qualities – persistence, you have to be prepared tolearn, work hard, move around. If people come to me with good A-levels, a goodgap year experience, and have worked in student newspapers, I think that showscommitment. I also don’t think, per se, media studies are a bad thing. At A-level itshows kids have worked hard and are committed.’

The interview

Preparation is everything, whether you are applying for a job or work experience.Know your local radio and TV station and study their websites in detail. Be familiarwith the output and the style. Know about the area – its industry, people, politicsand stories. Be familiar with the news the station is running that day and haveconstructive comments to make about its output and ideas on how to develop thosestories. Just be well briefed in current affairs. Be prepared to face news reading,news writing or even a screen test. Be early. Be smartly dressed.

The best way to get briefed is to talk to staff members who are doing the job youhave applied for. Be prepared for standard interview questions:

Why do you want to work here?What can you offer us – give us examples of what you’ve done?What do you think of the channel/station output?What do you see yourself doing in 5 years time?Do you work well in a team?

Come over as confident, positive, lively, interesting and above all, enthusiastic.

Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking is inbuilt into the digital newsrooms. Everyone new to the businessis expected to be able to deliver material on all platforms.

As far as a career is concerned, any separation between radio, television andonline news has vanished. Multi-media delivery used to be a trend. Now it isentrenched into all broadcast media. When the newcomer is not expected to work asa part of a team, he’s expected to also work independently. It’s not a contradiction.Breaking news means all hands to the task, and yet minutes later he or she hasa specific job to do, such as getting maps or graphics into the system withoutany spelling errors on place names. Channels damage their credibility with smallerrors – and can wreck their brand or destroy trust with big mistakes.

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Figure 1.3 No longer the new relation who gets a late party invitation. The broadcast news website isan integral part of every newsroom operation. Viewers send in their comments. Editors and journalistscan also add information about their output. Single stories and previous reports can be viewed again.News websites are updated almost as fast as TV and radio transmission. (courtesy ITN)

That does not mean that a career decision must be based on courses or train-ing with the title ‘multi-media’ because the reality is that if you study radio or goimmediately into television from a training course or a newspaper, you will findyourself writing for the website anyway and providing video and audio for it aswell. Many television news services also provide radio, and vice versa, so the oldsilos have broken down. At the World Journalism Education conference in Singa-pore in June 2007, there was broad agreement on the need to differentiate betweenfull-time, paid journalists and the world of blogs, citizen journalism, and peoplewho send in pictures, usually from a phone. Two areas in particular distinguish theprofessional journalists from their counterparts: training and adherence to codes ofethics – and there was agreement that both would need to be strengthened signifi-cantly if the professional journalist is to win the trust of the audience and readersin an increasingly diverse age.

Look at any broadcast journalism job advertisement anywhere in the world andthe description will be very generic, containing sentences which will mention thatthe job will ask you to work ‘flexibly’ across the full range of accepted journalisticwork, including cross-platform and multi-media. For the newcomers it would bequite wrong to conclude that the website, television and radio all have the samerequirements from the journalist. They have their strengths and weaknesses inrelation to one another. The Internet is solitary and interactive; TV is passive anddemands images; radio likes great audio and is the only one you can totally engagewith while doing something else. If you look or listen to TV or radio news then

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Figure 1.4 An editorial meeting at More4 News where decisions about the day’s coverage will bediscussed and planned. (courtesy ITN)

websites are often shown or quoted and the audience send in opinions by email.The website can instantly look like a TV screen and you also can listen to radiostations all over the world.

Surviving editorial meetings

Surviving all this is has a lot to do with having ideas – ideas that are practical,achievable and original. It means ideas for coverage. Ideas for stories, angles andinterviews. It’s useful to know what the German writer and scientist Goethe said:‘Everything has been thought of before. The challenge is to rethink it.’

One meeting at a British TV channel was discussing how to do a story abouta contraceptive pill for men. The usual ideas came along: interview the scientistsin Geneva, get pictures of the pills, graphics on how they affect the body. Thiswent on for 5 minutes until the editor pointed out that there were seven males andfive females in the room. He went around all the men and asked each one if theywould take this pill? It was a simple question, and therefore unavoidable. Five outof seven said they would not – ‘That’, he told the meeting, ‘could be the story.Will men take it?’ It’s probably obvious, but nobody had mentioned it. Everyoneseemed wired into their technology and conventional methods.

The editorial meeting, where decisions are made at various times in the day, is theplace for original debate and what is often called creative tension. The newcomermay find that modest silence is fine for a few days – but soon he will be expected

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to take part in what is essentially a democratic process where the newcomer canhave as good an idea as the veteran. These meetings also aim to test accuracy,impartiality and balance of coverage. All large news organizations hold a dailymeeting of senior news staff and probably a second meeting later in the day. Smallerprogramme meetings are also held and everyone can contribute. Special meetingsmay also be held each week to look forward to planned coverage. This is also achance to get a snapshot of audience feedback from the website.

Add to this your writing ability, honesty, tenacity and the ability to work in ateam, and you have the main ingredients for a fruitful and rewarding career.

Formal and practical training for broadcast journalism

Good training means a chance to do practical things and to make your mistakesbefore you get anywhere near real airtime. Courses which are devoted specific-ally to broadcast journalism are likely to include plenty of writing; radio and TVproduction, reporting and IT skills; media law, regulatory and ethical issues.

In the UK, the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC) is a partnershipof all the main employers in the industry. These are: the BBC (News, Nations& Regions and Training), ITV News Group, ITN, IRN, Sky News, C4, Reuters,RadioCentre (formerly the Commercial Radio Companies Association), the NUJand Skillset, the Sector Skills Council for the audio–visual industries. The BJTCwebsite (www.bjtc.org.uk) is worth a visit to check college courses.

Many large broadcasting organizations – national and regional – have trainingcourses, sponsorship schemes and placement opportunities, but these are constantlychanging so check their websites. In all cases try to find a name to write to. This ismuch better than sending your polished CV to ‘ITN’or ‘The BBC’– apart from yourletter getting lost or endlessly floating around within these large organizations, ifyou have found a name to write to you are showing the kind of tenacity and initiativethey’re looking for in the first place.

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