Writing for Broadcast Media

Writing for broadcast newscasts proves to be incredibly difficult. With only a half hour show, broadcast journalists must convey all the major headlines in a very short amount of time. This includes the weather report, news stories, sports recaps, and some editorial stories. Stories, then, must be quick and to the point. While the headlines need to grab the attention of the audience, they also need to be direct in order to get the most information across in the shortest amount of time.
WGME has received multiple awards for broadcast excellence. Their stories are usually well put together and very concise. That is not to say, though, that every lead comes without error. Journalism is subjective. While the copy editors of WGME seemed to think that their piece on blasting a quarry in Westbrook on February 1, there are some parts of the story that I feel could be changed. For example, the lead of the story does nothing to grab the attention of the audience. This story is more of a human interest piece rather than a breaking news story, so it needs that much more help in coming across as important to the viewer. By delaying the lead, the writer lost my interest. It was difficult for me to figure out what exactly the story was talking about and what the major points of the story were. If I was in charge of editing copy before the airing of this story, I would have rearranged the lead to include the important details, such as the who, when, what, and where of the story. This would not only grab the attention of the viewers, but it would clarify the thesis of the story.
On top of the formatting changes, I would also make some grammatical changes to the story. There is a sentence in the middle of the story that is awkward, seeming a bit fragmented. The story reads “Pike industries owns a quarry on Spring Street” (WGME 2010). The sentence does not really fit in with the flow of the story, and seems a bit out of place. I would have included this information within another sentence, condensing the story. One of the biggest rules of journalism is to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. This was not achieved in the WGME story. Overall the story is a good one, however even good reports have room for improvement.

“To Blast or Not to Blast.” News 13 at Six.WGME, Portland. 1 February 2010.
http://www.wgme.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wgme_vid_2282.shtml