video ramp in the beginning and the video tail at the end Both the ramp and tail of a news story should be only two or three seconds of video with natural sound. This is done to let the switcher in the control booth put the story on the air without airing black or missing the first words of your story. Outs are written for the anchors to read as a way of easing the transition from story to story or as seques into another section of the news show. Like intros, outs are not to be written because the reporter could not condense his story to an acceptable length. Most often intros and outs are written (or at least rewritten) by the anchors so the voice is in the news anchor’s own style. SCRIPTWRITING The basics of broadcast writing are known to all journalists  through  the  efforts  of  DINFOS  and  the JO 3 & 2 manual. The following guidance helps the experienced  broadcast  journalist  train  staff  members  in the peculiar world of television writing. The scriptwriting process for news stories must always begin with pictures. (Remember, the previously mentioned time saver technique of story editing is to be used only when meeting crushing deadlines.) As stated earlier in this chapter, a story with pictures just flopped on top of it as “cover video” is radio news with pictures. This is a hard concept to understand for most journalists, so  spend  some  time  on  this  next  paragraph  and  think about it over and over in your mind until every time you start the reporting process in television, you do not fall into the announcer mentality (that is, thinking of words before  pictures). Television  news,  unlike  radio  news,  is  not  the simple transmission of facts to a listening audience. In radio  news,  the  spoken  word  can  be  used  as  a  one dimensional  vehicle  to  relay  information  from  point  A to  B  (reporter  to  audience).  Television  has  to  be  a reconstruction  of  the  news  event  itself.  You  may  have all the facts on hand, but it will not interest an audience, nor will the audience even possibly understand it if you use  words  (script)  as  your  primary  information transmission  carrier.  You  must  take  the  viewer  to  the scene and show him what is going on. People watch television news to see what is happening, not to hear what is happening. The video is the base from which the television  journalist  must  work.  Along  with  this  basic video information channel, the journalist then uses narrative  and  sound  effects  to  carry  additional illuminating information and details. An example of this would be an individual watching a story about the rising number of welfare recipients in the United States and then seeing some image that shows him that fact. In this scenario, the following depictions  would  be  appropriate:  pictures  of  recipients picking up their checks, shots of how life changes for a family when Dad loses his job or graphics (bar chart) that display the increase in welfare recipients compared to  tax  increases. NEWS Learning  Objective: Understand   the   principles, activities  and  personnel  requirements  of  newsroom organization. What  is  or  is  not  news  is  a  discussion  most journalists started having during “A” school and will continue to have until they die. In this section, we simply state that news at your station is going to be what you, as the supervisor, decide it to be. For example, the requirements for a news story to air on Navy News This Week will need to be of Navy-wide interest while the news peg for a local story will be very different most of the time. If you are working at an isolated duty station, such as Adak, Alaska, news is going to mean primarily sports and family oriented events (a typical small town news format). The reasons for that particular decision is based on the large family population and the large unmarried,  predorminately  male,  barracks  population. The faces of children and sport activities were what the audience wanted to see (that information is based on, of course, various audience surveys). You have to know your audience and satisfy their needs to “sell” them command information. (World and national news is part of   the   command’s   information   package   in   this discussion).  Think  of  command  information  as  the product that must be sold to keep the station open. NEWSROOM  ORGANIZATION As  always,  the  organization  of  any  activity  in broadcasting depends on the specific requirements and the available manpower. Therefore, for the purposes of training,  we  will  discuss  the  positions  needed  to complete   a   nightly   half-hour   news   requirement. Usually,  such  a  demand  is  made  when  the  manpower consists of the following: a PH2 or below to help fill the ENG shooting and editing roles, a JO1 or JO2 as news  director/assignment  editor  and  two  JO2s  or  below as reporters. (Often an IC technician is added to the newsroom  as  the  ENG  gear  caretaker  or  trouble shooter). 8-28