Week 2 – Radio Reporting

Your turn – Quiz 1

• Who was Edward R. Murrow? Why would we be interested in talking about him in this class?

• What is a driveway moment?• Which of the NPR stories that you listened to

prompted a driveway moment? Please explain why.

• List one goal of the NPR Code of Ethics• What changes to radio programming did David

Luscher predict would occur?• What story did you choose and why?

Dissection

Stories are like pineapples

If radio stories are like pineapples, what is the skin of a story or the outside?

LISTEN HERE:

Stories are like pineapples

What is the skin?

What are the inedible layers but important layers?

Stories are like pineapples

What is the core or the nut graph of the Heathrow story?

What makes something a story?

• Review elements of newsworthiness

- timeliness, human interest, impact, controversy, entertainment, prominence.

What makes a good radio story?

• Listen to Uninsured Americans.

Uninsured Americans

• Why is it a story?– What makes it newsworthy?

• What is the nut graph?

• What is the skin?

• What are the inedible layers?

• Did it offer a driveway moment? How could it have been better?

Reporting Refreshers

• Accuracy

- What can you do to help guarantee that what you report and write are accurate?

- Fact-checking

• Fair

• Unbiased

• Follow-up questions

Writing Basics

• Write as you speak• Use present tense• Don’t paraphrase that for which you will be using

for sound• Use simple sentence structures• Avoid broad assertions and generalities• Don’t over-attribute• Write short sentences• Avoid hypotheticals, including questions.• Don’t be repetitive

Exercise

• In pairs, rewrite the following lead and first graph of this story from the New York Times, referring to Chapter 3 of “Sound Reporting”

Writing Basics

• Don’t use too many names or numbers

• Watch tongue twisters

• Watch the trite

• Make sure you understand what you write

Story organization – next week

Story structure:

(Chapter 4, Sound Reporting)

Introduction – promise to readers (nut graph)

The First Track -