ABSTRACT

Developing stories, which constantly throw up new angles and call for different versions through the news cycle, are known as running stories. Broadcast news can handle more complex stories by breaking the information down point by point and giving it out in a logical sequence. Multi-angled stories may arise from one good story leading to an equally good follow-up which beg to be combined. These can be refreshed and kept running by updating and emphasising different angles in subsequent bulletins. Reports of accidents, air crashes and loss of life must be handled with utmost care. If a crowded passenger train has been derailed and passengers killed, there can be no excuses for confusing the time of the train with that of another. A slip of the eye or stumble on the keyboard can render numbers wildly out, which can have a dramatic effect on a story and create widespread alarm.