Television Newscasts

When presenting the news especially in a format such as television, there is a priority on the clearness and organization through which you present each piece of information. There is no time to bury the leads in your story and it is essential that what is written can be easily communicated to the audience by the newscaster. There is a necessity to be clear and concise in the order that you initially present the information. The introduction to each story should include an initial hook that will gain the audiences attention easily. The easiest way to do that is to include phrases that will instantly gain that audience attention. In the first sentence of each story there was a use of phrases such as “meth lab,” “domestic abuse,” and “budget cuts.” These quick phrases immediately catch the viewer’s attention and allow them to gain the initial attention necessary to present the full story.

What was also noticeable when watching the news was the organization that each news story seemed to have. There were the introductory sentences that used phrase to gain the audiences attention. Then that sentence was expanded upon with such information as what occurred, who was involved, and what were the consequences or after affects of these occurrences. Stories involving criminal activity were always spoken about in the past tense, while stories involving government programs were always in the present. However there was often a change in tense used by the newscaster to talk about past crimes and upcoming criminal investigations, along with other news stories requiring this change in tense. This is necessary in that the news needs to be conveyed as an ongoing series of events to the viewer. The newscasters are not simply reporting the news; they are conveying a story and trying to keep the viewers involved.

The difference between print and televised news coverage is that there needs to be and immediate hook to draw in the viewer’s attention with televised news coverage. Despite the being a competitiveness to print journalism, television is even more competitive. Viewers only have to change a channel in order to switch from one program to another, and with well over 300 cable channels available the choices are many. That is why televised news seems to use the “If it bleeds, it leads” mantra of news reporting more than print journalists. The more sensational a story, the more likely a viewer is to pay attention to the new station.