Sources and Presentation of Radio News
Methods of Collating Collecting and Distributing News Stories
Sep 4, 2009
The Education Resources Information Centre, ERIC, is “an online digital library of education research and information” sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the US Department of Education, and is based at the Computer Sciences Corporation in Washington. They hold records of a paper by Charles D. Whitney presented in August 1979 to the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism in Houston, Texas.
Charles D Whitney’s Paper on Sources of News.
The paper presented gives the findings of a study comprising of one week’s informal observation in the newsroom at a Mid Western (USA) Radio Station followed by a two week case study period. The purpose was “to examine the production of programming material in a radio newsroom.” One of the main findings identified a total of “646 sources of news for that period,” and that the largest source of incoming news was the wire services.
646 Sources of News
Charles D Whitney's presented findings through reports and observations, graphs and tables give an exhaustive breakdown of a typical week in a radio station newsroom in 1979. The largest source then was wire services: wire services being news organisations and agencies that uncover, collate and collect news and supply it in many different forms and formats to their customers and partners.
Today wire services are still as much in evidence as they were in 1979 and a similar survey may reveal a similar reliance on the news they provide, but now there are as many sources of news as there are news stories, and the following list of sources of news give an indication of the depth of information available to the modern newsroom. They include:
- Wire services, and News Organisations.
- Competitors in radio and other mediums
- Reporters and Contacts
- Press Releases and Politicians
- News Conferences
- Freelance Contributors
- Pressure Groups
- Letters to the Editor
- Comments from contributors on current or relevant past events
- Tip Offs including hoaxes.
- Events and Emergency Services
- Anniversaries and Occasions
- Made-Up News or Ideas for News Stories
Perhaps the last two inclusions need explanation. There are news stories that are ‘New’, or stories breaking and developing, current events taking place to be reported. A news room can also ‘generate’ news reporting, canvas opinions at a suitable time after an event to update the listeners. The reasoning usually given follows the line “It’s a year to the day since XXXX ,” and reports on how the area, the people, or the subject has changed. This is a valid form of updating the news story.
Presentation of News to the Radio Listener.
There are many ways to tell a news story, but above all many news editors will argue it has to be relevant to the audience and interesting. Radio News may be delivered in a number of ways, and it is always dependent on the type of radio station, the style of the news reporting in the overall context of the station’s programming and the intended audience. Some news bulletins are extremely short limited to headlines while others will use more detail. Styles of presentation include:
- The solo news reader voice imparts the news effectively, but is less effective for long bulletins
- Two voices reading alternate stories, or parts of each stories may be easier and more effective for the listener
- Inserts from reporters on the ground add weight, drama and pictures to any story
- Interviewing participants in the story, politicians, emergency services personnel, victims, or witnesses all help fill out the details for the listener and make it ‘come alive’
- Spokespersons are often called in to offer the official line
- Other broadcasting organisations, especially in foreign stories, are a good source of getting a balance and context
- Experts commenting on events can help put them into context, if there is time for explanation
- Insert Vox Pops, or sample opinions.
Asking radio station listeners their views on a particular story and how it affects them personally, either directly or through phone conversations gets the audience involved.
These various sources together with the various forms of presentation, some of which may reveal their own story, make radio news more ‘listenable.’
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