A newscast could be a lot of things...five minutes of headlines read by a radio reporter at 6 a.m. or maybe a full, half-hour television broadcast, complete with weather and sports. For our purposes, a newscast is: The framework within which we place stories.
Those stories take a number of forms...
There's the reader. That's when the newscaster reads news copy (otherwise known as a script) directly to listeners. It's news that he has written himself, and doesn't include any additional outside sound. Many radio stations provide newscasts that are little more than a series of readers, strung together taken from wire service copy. It might look something like this:
The state Supreme Court ordered a new sentence today for a man convicted of shooting a New Haven police officer. The high court unanimously upheld the conviction of Arnold Bell, but found part of a law giving him a stiffer sentence as a persistent dangerous offender unconstitutional.
Then, there's the scripter. That's when the newscaster reads copy, and inserts a soundbite into the the story. Of course, there's a million ways to refer to the soundbite, like: cut, bite, clip, sound on tape (or SOT), tape (that's pretty old-fashioned), audio, and probably a few I'll forget. Here's the same story, written as a scripter:
The state Supreme Court ordered a new sentence today for a man convicted of shooting a New Haven police officer. The high court unanimously upheld the conviction of Arnold Bell, but found part of a law giving him a stiffer sentence as a persistent dangerous offender unconstitutional. Bell's attorney, Joe Blow said the ruling was a victory:
Bell :12 "...will be vindicated."
Bell was convicted of shooting officer Jane Smith in 2001.
Another name for the scripter is the donut...and it's easy to see why. There's some stuff...then a hole where the soundbite goes, then more stuff. Many TV stations (they call them VO-SOTs, or voiceovers with sound on tape...catchy, no?), and some radio stations dispense with the second bit of "stuff" and just move on to the next story.
A more complex version of the scripter is the wrap, which is also called a spot or a package. Basically, it's the same idea, but a reporter is delivering the story...not a newscaster. What the newscaster (or anchor...or host...to give you two more terms) reads is a host intro...or host lead. This is written by the reporter, and given to the newscaster as a way to introduce the story. It will almost always include the important news the story is about to tell. A good host intro is something like this:Connecticut Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd campaigned in New Hampshire today, fresh off his endorsement by the nation's largest firefighter union. WNPR's Av Harris reports.
Then, the story begins, with the reporter's pre-recorded voice, and a soundbite included. At the end, the reporter signs off. Something called an SOQ (standard outcue). It's pronounced "sock" and goes something like this:
For WNPR News, I'm Av Harris in Manchester New Hampshire.
A simpler version of a reporter-delivered story is the voicer. This has all the same elements...but the soundbite is left out. Thus, just the voice...a voicer.
At the end of the spectrum, we have the most complex type of story...the feature. It's really just a wrap...but with more soundbites from multiple voices. It's longer, so there can be more background information, and even scenes...where sound can be used to tell the story. The feature is complex enough that we'll spend a lot more time talking about it later.
