Broadcast Stories and Its Structure Unit 6: BBS First Year Business English

 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Y07B0xqbg 

Broadcast Stories

Broadcast stories can be useful for broadcasting by using television, radio and internet that are written not just for the eyes but also for the ears. Timely stories that have happened recently or happening now are effective for broadcast channels. They need to be written concisely by telling the main points right away within 20 seconds to 2 minutes; 15 lines or 150 words per minute because technology drives the content in broadcast stories. They are written with audio-visual impact avoiding abstract descriptions rather they are written with a human focus, relating to an affected, representative person.

Some of the tips for writing broadcast stories  

•      Stress immediacy: Use different tenses such as the present, progressive, perfect or past tense to stress with always, now, or just last month.

•      Use conversational style: Always write in such a way so that reader can read aloud. Use simple and active voice avoiding passive and compound sentences.

•      Condense: Try to avoid wordiness writing tight. The fewer words in a sentence, the better result they express as we have less space and time.

•      Maintain clarity: Better not to use synonyms and a dependent clause. Keep the subject close to the verb avoiding figures of speech.

Broadcast Story Structure

•      Beginning: It begins with a ‘cueing in’ (Write two lines about the story and a line introducing the report, three lines in total, with the third line introducing the reporter's name. The cue is read by the newsreader or presenter). It can also be begun with ‘Lead’ that explains ‘what’, ‘who did what and when, where but does not begin with a dependent clause or prepositional phrase.

•      Body: It is started with ‘Lead-ins’ that introduce the listeners to the broadcast item they are about to hear - whether this is a news report, interview, bulletin, or longer report. A lead-in avoids too many facts and figures. Instead, it focuses on the essence of the broadcast item to follow. Set scene by telling ‘when, where and what’ for taped excerpts explaining the source and the reporter. 

•      Ending: This is called wrap up which refers to a news script written and read by a reporter that includes a fact. Wrap-up is important for radio news because it is not visual.

Broadcast copy format ( See in detail page 269)

A Sample of Broadcast Story

The Interview and Recruit 4^th Year Students for Fall Semester

(Present) The university authority is reviewing whether it should prohibit potential employers to interview and recruit fourth-year students in the fall semester.

(Past) The move is made in response to the protest of professors of several schools and departments, who claimed that such on-campus interviews disrupted classes and affected the quality of education.

The student affairs office of the School of Foreign Studies reported that last semester, 33 companies and institutions, including the foreign ministry and Xinhua News Agency, came and interviewed over 80 percent of the school's 110 graduating students and some students went to three or five interviews.

Many professors had to cancel classes when these interviews were being held.

Sound bite (Professor Zhou Hong being interviewed): In our class, only three students showed up. Our four-year program is becoming a three-year program. I think the quality of teaching is seriously affected.

These companies and institutions, according to the report, finally signed employment contracts with 45 students and asked another 52 to submit additional documents.

(Future) Professor Zhou Hong and several of his colleagues from the School of Foreign Studies say this should not happen again next fall and they will continue to protest against the university authority until the problem is solved. 

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