Broadcast Journalism


Book Description

This newest edition of Broadcast Journalism continues its long tradition of covering the basics of broadcasting from gathering news sources, interviewing, putting together a programme, news writing, reporting, editing, working in the studio, conducting live reports, and more. Two new authors have joined forces in this new edition to present behind the scenes perspectives on multimedia broadcast news, where it is heading, and how you get there. Technology is meshing global and local news. Constant interactivity between on-the-scene reporting and nearly instantaneous broadcasting to the world has changed the very nature of how broadcast journalists must think, act, write and report on a 24/7 basis. This new edition takes up this digital workflow and convergence. Students of broadcast journalism and professors alike will find that the sixth edition of Broadcast Journalism is completely up-to-date. Includes new photos, quotations, and coverage of convergent journalism, podcasting, multimedia journalism, citizen journalism, and more!




Writing News for TV and Radio


Book Description

This disk and book enable students to learn the basics on their own. These new teaching tools put students to work, but let them proceed at their own pace. And let them run - or stroll - through a series of exercises on screen. They can take these exercises whenever and as often as they wish. Each round of exercises is a learning experience. Students learn the Dos and Don'ts, Cans and Can'ts, Musts and Mustn'ts. They learn them and learn how to apply them with a relaxed approach.




That's the Way It Is


Book Description

Ever since Newton Minow taught us sophisticates to bemoan the descent of television into a vast wasteland, the dyspeptic chorus of jeremiahs who insist that television news in particular has gone from gold to dross gets noisier and noisier. Charles Ponce de Leon says here, in effect, that this is misleading, if not simply fatuous. He argues in this well-paced, lively, readable book that TV news has changed in response to broader changes in the TV industry and American culture. It is pointless to bewail its decline. "That s the Way It Is "gives us the very first history of American television news, spanning more than six decades, from Camel News Caravan to Countdown with Keith Oberman and The Daily Show. Starting in the latter 1940s, television news featured a succession of broadcasters who became household names, even presences: Eric Sevareid, Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Peter Jennings, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and, with cable expansion, people like Glenn Beck, Jon Stewart, and Bill O Reilly. But behind the scenes, the parallel story is just as interesting, involving executives, producers, and journalists who were responsible for the field s most important innovations. Included with mainstream network news programs is an engaging treatment of news magazines like "60 Minutes" and "20/20, " as well as morning news shows like "Today" and "Good Morning America." Ponce de Leon gives ample attention to the establishment of cable networks (CNN, and the later competitors, Fox News and MSNBC), mixing in colorful anecdotes about the likes of Roger Ailes and Roone Arledge. Frothy features and other kinds of entertainment have been part and parcel of TV news from the start; viewer preferences have always played a role in the evolution of programming, although the disintegration of a national culture since the 1970s means that most of us no longer follow the news as a civic obligation. Throughout, Ponce de Leon places his history in a broader cultural context, emphasizing tensions between the public service mission of TV news and the quest for profitability and broad appeal."




Writing for Broadcast News


Book Description

Describes the storytelling elements of a broadcast news story. It shows students and professionals of radio and TV journalism how to apply structure to stories. Use cases of news reports and evaluation checklists are presented.




Broadcast Hysteria


Book Description

On the evening of October 30, 1938, radio listeners across the United States heard a startling report of a meteor strike in the New Jersey countryside. With sirens blaring in the background, announcers in the field described mysterious creatures, terrifying war machines, and thick clouds of poison gas moving toward New York City. As the invading force approached Manhattan, some listeners sat transfixed, while others ran to alert neighbors or to call the police. Some even fled their homes. But the hair-raising broadcast was not a real news bulletin-it was Orson Welles's adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds. In Broadcast Hysteria, A. Brad Schwartz boldly retells the story of Welles's famed radio play and its impact. Did it really spawn a "wave of mass hysteria," as The New York Times reported? Schwartz is the first to examine the hundreds of letters sent to Orson Welles himself in the days after the broadcast, and his findings challenge the conventional wisdom. Few listeners believed an actual attack was under way. But even so, Schwartz shows that Welles's broadcast became a major scandal, prompting a different kind of mass panic as Americans debated the bewitching power of the radio and the country's vulnerability in a time of crisis. When the debate was over, American broadcasting had changed for good, but not for the better. As Schwartz tells this story, we observe how an atmosphere of natural disaster and impending war permitted broadcasters to create shared live national experiences for the first time. We follow Orson Welles's rise to fame and watch his manic energy and artistic genius at work in the play's hurried yet innovative production. And we trace the present-day popularity of "fake news" back to its source in Welles's show and its many imitators. Schwartz's original research, gifted storytelling, and thoughtful analysis make Broadcast Hysteria a groundbreaking new look at a crucial but little-understood episode in American history.




Pacific Radio News


Book Description




Sound Business


Book Description

American newspapers have faced competition from new media for over ninety years. Today digital media challenge the printed word. In the 1920s, broadcast radio was the threatening upstart. At the time, newspaper publishers of all sizes turned threat into opportunity by establishing their own stations. Many, such as the Chicago Tribune's WGN, are still in operation. By 1940 newspapers owned 30 percent of America's radio stations. This new type of enterprise, the multimedia corporation, troubled those who feared its power to control the flow of news and information. In Sound Business, historian Michael Stamm traces how these corporations and their critics reshaped the ways Americans received the news. Stamm is attuned to a neglected aspect of U.S. media history: the role newspaper owners played in communications from the dawn of radio to the rise of television. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources, he recounts the controversies surrounding joint newspaper and radio operations. These companies capitalized on synergies between print and broadcast production. As their advertising revenue grew, so did concern over their concentrated influence. Federal policymakers, especially during the New Deal, responded to widespread concerns about the consequences of media consolidation by seeking to limit and even ban cross ownership. The debates between corporations, policymakers, and critics over how to regulate these new kinds of media businesses ultimately structured the channels of information distribution in the United States and determined who would control the institutions undergirding American society and politics. Sound Business is a timely examination of the connections between media ownership, content, and distribution, one that both expands our understanding of mid-twentieth-century America and offers lessons for the digital age.




No News is Bad News


Book Description

Provides an analytical overview of contemporary issues of the public accountability of broadcasting, as exemplified in the the area of television and radio news and current affairs and documentary. This volume of collected essays is a parallel text to the bestselling Sex, Lies and Democracy. The aim is to offer frameworks for the analysis of chiefly contemporary empirical evidence in three broad catagories: critical statements of the 'problems'; analyses of orthodox (regulatory) solutions; and explorations of the alternatives.




Radio Journalism in America


Book Description

This history of radio news reporting recounts and assesses the contributions of radio toward keeping America informed since the 1920s. It identifies distinct periods and milestones in broadcast journalism and includes a biographical dictionary of important figures who brought news to the airwaves. Americans were dependent on radio for cheap entertainment during the Great Depression and for critical information during the Second World War, when no other medium could approach its speed and accessibility. Radio's diminished influence in the age of television beginning in the 1950s is studied, as the aural medium shifted from being at the core of many families' activities to more specialized applications, reaching narrowly defined listener bases. Many people turned elsewhere for the news. (And now even TV is challenged by yet newer media.) The introduction of technological marvels throughout the past hundred years has significantly altered what Americans hear and how, when, and where they hear it.




Beyond Powerful Radio


Book Description

Beyond Powerful Radio is a complete guide to becoming a powerful broadcast communicator on radio or internet! This how-to cookbook is for broadcasters who want to learn the craft and improve. This practical and easy-to-read book, filled with bullet lists, offers techniques to learn everything from how to produce and host a show, to news gathering, coverage of investigative and breaking stories, writing and delivering the commercial copy and selling the air time. With contributions from over 100 top experts across all broadcast fields, Beyond Powerful Radio offers techniques, advice and lessons to build original programming, for news, programming, talk shows, producers, citizen journalism, copy writing, sales, commercials, promotions, production, research, fundraising, and more. Plus: Tips to assemble a winning team; to develop, build, and market your brand; get your next job in broadcasting, effectively promote your product; increase sales; write and produce commercials; raise money with your station; deal with creative burnout and manage high ego talent; and to research and grow your audience. Never be boring! Get, keep, and grow audiences through powerful personality, storytelling, and focus across any format. Tried-and-true broadcast techniques apply to the myriad forms of audio broadcast available today, including Web radio and podcasting. While the technology and delivery systems change, the one constant is content! Listeners, viewers, and surfers want to be entertained, informed, inspired, persuaded, and connected with powerful personalities, and storytellers. A full Instructor Manual is available with complete lesson plans for broadcast instructors - course includes Audio Production/Radio Programming/Management/Broadcast Journalism. The Instructor Manual is available for download here: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780240522241/