ABSTRACT
Television News. This chapter reviews the professional standards used in television newsrooms. After discussing the time limitations and the news hole in 30-minute local newscasts, the chapter examines the cornerstones of broadcast news writing in-depth. These areas are leads, descriptors, attribution, neutral words, times, places, and the process of editing out unneeded words. Leads are broken down into the categories of hard, soft, delayed, quote, shotgun, negative, trivia, and question. Descriptors and attribution are compared against their usage in print journalism. The scripting of neutral words, times, and places is explained for a professional journalist. After a discussion of editing and active/passive voice, the chapter illustrates how to write readers, voiceovers, VOSOTs, and packages in split-column format. The chapter ends with an overview of tosses and adlibs in newscasts.
