Page 70 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

BROADCAST WRITING AND SPEAKING

Second, you might want to emphasize the not part of the expression,
in which case you wouldn’t contract it: He said he did NOT commit the
crime.

Titles before Names
In broadcast, we put titles and identifiers before the name. That’s
because what people need to know is the title—which is likely why
we’re talking with someone. The name itself is detail that is less critical
to understanding the story. We also tend to shorten titles. No need to do
that for nice, short, self-explanatory titles, but we commonly change a
long obscure title into a short description of what the audience needs to
know (e.g., a state welfare official rather than some long, involved title).
We also tend to shorten names in two ways: First, don’t use middle
names or initials unless the person is commonly known that way—and
few people are. Second, we tend to use a shortened first name if people
are commonly known or go by the shortened name, rather than their
formal name. Consequently, Joseph frequently becomes Joe—assuming
60 the person goes by Joe.

Attribution before the Statement
Broadcast generally puts attribution—the source of information—
before the statement or information. That’s because the source deter-
mines how we look at or think about any piece of information. In
broadcast, we can’t afford to have the audience mulling over the source
and reevaluating the information because we continue reading. There-
fore, it is more important to say right up front that Superintendent of
Schools Joe Smith is the source who thinks the school board should
vote on a plan to close a school. The title and source give the statement
more credibility than if it were made by angry parent John Doe. Telling
people the source of information before presenting the facts makes it
clearer and easier to digest the information when people only get to
hear it.

One Idea or Thought per Sentence
We also keep sentences short for the sake of the audience. People
can only take in so much information at one time when they only get
to hear it. Each sentence in broadcast should contain no more than
one important thought or idea. If you have more than one key point,