Page 71 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

Rules for Understandability

you have an overloaded sentence that will be harder to read and much
harder to understand. Split up the information into separate sentences.

Voice and Tense
Use active voice wherever possible. In active voice, the subject of the
sentence does the action as opposed to passive voice, where the subject
of the sentence receives the action. Active is shorter, tighter, punchier,
and more interesting. Our first choice in tense is present. Broadcast is
all about what’s going on now, so present tense plays to that strength.
Second choice is future tense. Third choice is present perfect, which
uses “has” and “have” to indicate that some activity, while in the past,
took place recently.

Leads
The lead, the opening sentence of a story, is by far the most important
sentence in the story. But the broadcast lead isn’t at all like the print lead
and doesn’t serve the same purpose. In fact, the broadcast lead most
closely parallels the print headline. The sole job of the broadcast lead 61
is to get the attention of the audience just as the print headline’s job is
to direct the reader to the story. The lead may also convey information
about the story, but that’s not its critical function. It’s all about getting
the attention of the listener or viewer. Consequently, the lead must be
short, strong, and interesting.

Chronological Story Development
Not all stories have a chronology, that is, one event taking place after
another. When a story has that chronological development, the story
is almost always best told that way. That fits right into the traditional
oral storytelling tradition. We start with the lead—Say, did you hear
about X?—then we tell the story from beginning to end. It’s easiest
to remember the details that way, and it’s easier for the listener to
understand the story development that way.
If there is no chronological development, however, the story’s
sequence still needs to make sense. It’s not a random collection of
facts. You will never collect all of your information in the exact same
sequence in which you will tell the story, so you need to look at
the pieces you’ve gathered and determine the proper order of facts.
Start with a strong lead to get people’s attention, and then figure out
how you’re going to tell the story, going logically and as linearly as