Page 66 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

BROADCAST WRITING AND SPEAKING

Those differences in delivery and understandability result in forming
broadcast messages (news) differently than print. It’s neither better
nor worse. It’s just different. As a broadcast journalist, you must first
think about how to say the material out loud. In print, we have a
series of stylistic rules so that every time the reader encounters a name
or reference, its usage is consistent and therefore not confusing. In
broadcast, where most of the audience never sees the copy, we have
rules for writing designed to make reading the copy easier for the anchor
and reporter. This chapter explores the ways in which broadcast writing
is tailored for the ear.

Rules for Readability

The following subsections cover guidelines for making copy more clear
for broadcast announcers.

56 Page Form
Copy to be read on the air is double spaced—sometimes triple spaced.
In radio, copy is written all across the page (with standard margins).
In television, use a split page with audio (the script) on the right and
video (supers and instructions) on the left.

Numbers
Single digits on a page are too easily lost, and some looks like letters.
Write out numbers one through nine; use numerals for 10 through
999; then use the appropriate combination of numerals and words for
thousand, million, and so on. Ordinals can go either way (second or
2nd). Years should be written as numerals.

Abbreviations
Don’t use abbreviations in broadcast writing. Abbreviations require
translation in order to read, and that poses the potential for stum-
bling. In addition, some abbreviations stand for more than one thing
(St., for example). Exceptions include Mr., Mrs., and Dr. We see them
so often and they always precede names, so there’s little danger of
mispronunciation.