Expert Scripting for Radio News.

Course Brief

Whether you are new to broadcast journalism or already have some experience, you will elevate your journalism and writing skills significantly during this workshop.  During the workshop you will learn a comprehensive process for writing copy for radio news bulletins. Though practical writing exercises, you will learn to select source material for a story, interrogate that source material, verify it and turn it into a compelling radio news story.

Course Content


The Principles of Good Writing

  • Details of the style and tone of writing appropriate to radio news

 

Journalism Principles

  • Details of the principles of journalism

 

News Story Sources

  • The morning newspapers.
  • Filtering the email inbox / how to analyse a press release
  • Daily markings
  • Following up on a tipoff from a member of the public
  • Following up on previous stories
  • Sourcing content from your radio station’s programmes
  • How to interrogate a story

 

Individual Exercise: Delegates will review source material and interrogate the stories.
Group Exercise: Each delegate will feed back into the group and together we will will assess the sourcing of stories.

COFFEE BREAK

The Editorial Mindset

How to assess a potential story editorially, including:

  • News value
  • Relevance
  • Timeliness
  • Public interest
  • How to balance the story
  • Avoiding sensationalisation
  • Knowing your audience

 

Individual Exercise: delegates will assess their stories editorially.
Group Exercise: each delegate will feed back into the group.

Writing News Copy — Local / National / International

  • How to write a news story based on whether it’s local, national or international
  • Determining the length of the news copy
  • Deciding on your top line
  • What information to include in each sentence
  • Choosing appropriate language for news copy
  • How to be impartial
  • How to write news copy when there’s no audio clip attached
  • How to write news copy when there is an audio clip attached
  • Ensuring the accuracy of the news copy
  • Reporters: how to write a radio news report
  • How to refresh your copy every couple of hours

Individual Exercise: delegates will write multiple stories for a news bulletin.
Group Exercise: each delegate will feed back into the group and the trainer will provide feedback on their writing.

13:00 LUNCH BREAK

Verification of your Story

  • How to know which sources to trust
  • Avoiding plagiarism
  • How to assess citizen journalism stories
  • Verifying your story with multiple sources

 

Producing News Bulletins

  • How to choose stories for your news bulletin: local / national / international
  • Deciding on the order of the news stories
  • Choosing whether to include a kicker

Individual Exercise: delegates will choose stories for a news bulletin and put them in order.
Group Exercise: each delegate will feed back into the group and together we will assess each news bulletin.

 

Longer Form Writing for News Websites

  • How to write long form text
  • What additional content could you include in the online version of the story?
  • How to write a headline
  • How to write a sub headline
  • Sourcing images for your story

Individual Exercise: delegates will adapt one of their news stories into longer copy for a news website.
Group Exercise: each delegate will feed back into the group and the trainer will provide feedback on their writing.


Social Media Sharing

Writing brief, contextualised copy to share news stories through social media

Individual Exercise: delegates will write short copy on one of their news stories to share on social media.
Group Exercise: each delegate will feed back into the group and the trainer will provide feedback on their social media post.
Feedback / Q&A
CONCLUSION OF COURSE

Trainer

Fiona Ashe has a 13-year track record in broadcast journalism. She has extensive experience in radio and television, both on air and behind the camera. She is also an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her skills as a content creator are applicable to news, programming, digital marketing and storytelling. She has been delivering training in a range of disciplines for the past 11 years.