ABSTRACT
Television news bulletins were introduced in the 1950s, and gradually became the dominant medium for news and current affairs reporting. During the Second World War, and at other times of national crisis, families had gathered round the radio. But after the first great television event – the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 – it was to television that people would turn in their millions for events such as Churchill’s funeral, the 1969 moon landings and football World Cups. Writing a television script requires even more economy than radio, because sometimes the pictures will be able to carry the story on their own, with little or no input from the reporter. If the pictures are telling the story, there is no need for speech. Good writing is just as important in television as it is in all other forms of journalism. It is just a different sort of writing.
