Typography, Headlines and Infographics

Eastern Standard Time) and family time (8 to 9 p.m., Eastern Standard

Time). Advertisers occasionally pull their ads if they find something

objectionable in a program. Parent groups have put considerable pres-

sure on the networks to monitor the level of violence in children’s

cartoons.

Student broadcasters who tape their own stories may find that their

“street” interviews sometimes must be carefully edited. All of us, and

teenagers in particular, tend to speak in an earthier way than what is

normally accepted in television, South Park excepted. So student report-

ers should expect to spend extra time doing video editing when they

use unrehearsed interviews.

450 MIXED MEDIA

PREPARING A BROADCAST SCRIPT

Just like a newspaper reporter, a radio or television journalist will

write news and feature stories that are important and interesting to

the local audience. But the style in which those stories are written is

different than the style for newspaper stories. In radio and television,

journalists write their stories in the form of scripts.

Editing a Broadcast Script

Broadcast scripts must be prepared for reading aloud. Whatever the

station’s style, the important thing is that the script be easy to read

aloud. The person who will be reading from the script may not have

had time to practice it before going on the air or may be looking into

the camera while reading from a scrolling teleprompter screen.

Some stations prefer scripts typed in all capital letters; some use capi-

tal and lowercase letters. Some stations double-space scripts; some pre-

fer single-spaced or even triple-spaced scripts. Some indent paragraphs;

some don’t. Individual newscasters may even devise their own editing

styles. The secret is to learn the station’s style and use it.

Broadcast scripts are edited using special copyediting symbols. Some

of the symbols for broadcast are different from those used in print

script

the form in which a story is
written for radio or television

Your Beat

1. Challenge one another to bring your funniest home
   videos to class. Watch for technical mistakes, such
   as camera movement that is too rapid.
   2. Keep a television viewing log for a week. Ask your
   parents and siblings to do so as well. Compare the
   viewing habits of teenagers in your class with those
   of the younger children and older adults.

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