Radio news styles

guide
By Joshua House

Forms of Radio news

There are many different forms that apply to radio
news.
For starters there are bulletins these are short
shows that give the listener a general idea of what
is going on, they only focus on the most important
news E.G. world news like political elections and
military involvements or other big news.
Bulletin are all scripted and prepared in
pre-production, they spread their stories out and
make sure they have a good balance of economic,
political and world news so that they listen doesnt
get bored and tune out.
An example of a news bulletin is the BBC news hourly
bulletin this gives the reader a quick news updated
every hour they cover big world news .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17434527
Info from: http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals
%20Volume%202/volume2_49.htm
Headlines
Headlines are simple the introduction to most news
shows and are very similar to the ones you see on TV
news shows, they are short and simple and much like
Headlines in newspapers they draw you in and make you
want to listen to the whole show.
Headlines are always great because they might not
give enough information as they are so brief
An example of news radio headlines
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05q5w75#auto
As you can see they just sum-up the news and tell you
whats going on.

News programs
News program is a full show it will be about fifteen
minutes long. Compared to other shows it will be
longer and will include detailed reports of the news
that will include interviews and on location reports.
Some shows even cover weather reports. An example of
this is the BBC radio 4 news at 6.
A full news program is expensive so not all of the
commercial radio run a full program it is mainly the
BBC Public funded stations that run them as they also
have to be un-biased to all issues. Another
disadvantage of a full shows is it is long and some
listeners may just tune out because of boredom.
Copy only:
A copy only show is simply one or two people and they
just read the stories out and tell you the news it is
one of the simplest forms of radio news. This means
that is cheap and easy, It Is often used on stations
that like to focus on Music like Absolute Radio.
Voicer
This is a report that has been pre-recorded by an
onsite journalist, because these are not live they
are usually scripted and they can do retakes to get a
better quality of report however this cannot be done
for breaking news because it will take time to
prepare these are usually done for smaller, local or
ongoing stories.
http://writinginstereo.podbean.com/2010/08/26/wis-iilesson-three-the-voicer/

Wraps

Wraps are very simple in a news show when they move

on to the next story or they end the show they use a
wrap to make things smoother. For example they can
use phrases like over to you (reporters name or at
the end they can use a wrap to close the show like in
the film Anchor-man they say stay classy Santiago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgGCIZi1UjY
On advantage of wraps is that they give the listener
an idea of when a story ends witch in a radio show
where you can only hear the news is more important
than ever.
http://clairenewstyle.blogspot.co.uk

Live cross
Live cross is in a news show when they cut to a live
feed, this live feed can be anything as long as its
live; most commonly though it is live reporters on
the scene or live interviews but it can be something
as simple as weather or a shipping forecast as long
as it is live.
These are good because they give the listener a live
report and nothing can be more up to date as that.
However switching to live feed can have lots of
technical obstacles and is hard and expensive to do
well.
http://clairenewstyle.blogspot.co.uk

Two way (live as live)

Live as live is when the reporter and the news anchor
will have a conversation proving the live feeds is
actually live. The anchor will often ask the reporter
questions and the reporter will answer giving a more
in depth report on the story.
http://clairenewstyle.blogspot.co.uk

Styles

Related to audience
This is always very specific news such as music news.
Examples of this are the internet radio station Radio
Rock give their audience music news rock and metal
news because the audience of a radio station like
radio rock would be more interested in that than
world news meaning more people would listen to their
news shows. This is generally smaller more specific
radio shows that do this as they only really care
about one thing. Music. I would be able to tell it is
an audience related news show as they only talk about
one subject.
https://www.teamrock.com/news/2015-04-15/teamrocktargets-global-radio-audience
Public service
A public service radio is one that is made to serve
the public the largest main net-work of public
service radio in the UK is the BBC. Funded by licence
fees paid by the public it has to provide an arsenal
of radio news to satisfy as many member of the public
as possible. They must have accurate information on
their news shows and be compliantly unbiased.

The amount of radio stations that the BBC have is

uncanny this is because they have to appeal to as
members of the public as possible.
One of the major advantages of public service is that
they have a large budget to produce extensive and
accurate news shows. One of the disadvantages is that
they must be completely biased so they cant always
give a full report because it may be seen as biased,

for example if they are talking about two political

party they would not be able to say that one party
has better policys as that could be biased even if
it is true.

https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-iteasier-for-the-media-and-creative-industries-to-growwhile-protecting-the-interests-ofcitizens/supporting-pages/public-service-broadcasting
Commercial
Commercial radio is a radio station that is owned by
a media company and is used for profit. In contrast
to public service radio they are funded by adverts so
obviously they have ad breaks, because they have to
devote some time to add they dont usually have big
news shows and just use headlines or copy only news
systems. Examples of commercial radios are Absolute
radio http://absoluteradio.co.uk/ who now have a
commercial radio station for every decade providing
verity without losing an audience. They focus mainly
on music so their news is pretty weak.
http://www.radiocave.com/commercial-radio-broadcastall-about-commercial.html
commercial radio is good because it can bring in more
profit for the station than a Public service radio
however the constant add breaks and generally weaker
news coverage can lead to loosing listeners also they
are harder to run as they dont get automatically
funded they have to make their funds and it easier to
go bankrupt.

Community radio

Community radios are kind of the opposite to a

commercial radio station they are in the business for
a non-profit motive they just want to serve the
community and they only cover small 5km areas they
are low budget.
One advantage of community radio stations is that
they are cheap to setup and run, as second is that
they serve to communitys often talking about topics
that listeners have requested and would like to see.
However the can only cover about 5-10 miles in range
so their listener numbers will always be limited and
they will to be able to turn a profit.
http://www.radioacademy.org/knowledge-bank/gettingin/voluntary-radio/community-radio/
an example of a community radio station is Reprezent
wh have been Broadcasting across the capital since
2011, Reprezent FM is the UKs only radio station
presented by young people under the age of 25.
http://www.reprezent.org.uk/#/about
this is a community radio station as it is run by th
community and is aimed at the community.
Small scale
Small scale radio stations are small Stations run and
funded by independent advertising, they can be run
for any purpose and they play what music or talk
about what they want. They are commonly used in
poorer countries like in Africa it is not uncommon to
have farm radio station that tell listeners about
market prices and weather forcasts.
http://www.commedia.org.uk/news/2011/07/future-ofsmall-scale-radio/

one advantage of small scale is that you can play

what you want as you own your station. However with
the new intervention of digital radio it is hard for
stations to get listeners as they all use digital and
it is expensive to broadcast in digital.
http://jackfm.co.uk/
jack FM is small scale commercial radio staion that
plays what is wants it is small scale as it is only
available on FM in the Oxfordshire area however on
their website you can listen though out the south
east.

Part 2 laws and ethics

Laws on stories involving minors

If a news story is about or involves a minor (someone
under the age of 18) there are laws in place to
protect said minors, these laws are put in place so
that no news networks can release the name, address
place of work or any other personal details of the
minor. This is good because it protects the minor
from any deformation in public interactions or from
attacks from offended parties. However I can limit
the way that they can report a story.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/21/disabi
lity-child-david-cameron-cuts-to-support
This story is an example of the law it talks about
the children but it doesnt mention their names or
where they live.
Contempt of court
This is when a news network tries to avert the cause
of justice by making someone look more or less guilty
than they are by doing a story about them. To
contempt of court is a serious offence and can result
in prison sentences.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jan/21/timescontempt-of-court
This is a story in The Guardian about a times article
that broke the contempt of court law when they put
quotes from some of the witnesses saying that the
offender had been wrongly convicted. This is contempt
of court as it could have altered the jurys
decisions.

Libel deformation

This is when a news network harms the reputation of

an individuals reputation by publishing stories that
make them look bad there is a law in place to stop
this. This law prevents news networks from hearting
an individuals reputation; making them shunned or
avoided in public or making them hated and exposed to
ridicule. This law means that anyone that does
experience deformation from news networks can sew
said news network.
An example of this is the recent Jeremy Clarkson
being compared to Jimmy Savile a known paedophile by
BBC producer when he was talking to the press the
fact that this was publish in the news means that
Jeremy was able to threaten with legal action against
the BBC due to the deformation laws.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/15/jeremyclarkson-compared-to-jimmy-savile-by-senior-bbcproducer_n_6873870.html

coverage of elections
When news networks are covering political elections
there is law put in place by off-com that means they
have to give equal coverage to all of the political
parties.
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/broadca
st-codes/broadcast-code/elections/
The rules state that during election all main parties
must have equal coverage and even small parties must
get some coverage.

The BBC have their own regulations on impartiality.

It is pretty similar to the of-com rules if you look
at this screen
shot from the bcc
news website they
have to have a
point for all of
the three major
parties Labour,
Lib-dems and conservative
Official secrets act
This is law imposed in 1989 I means news networks
cannot disclose any information under the following
categories without permission;

security and intelligence

defence
international relations
foreign confidences
information which might lead to the commission of
crime

this is good because it means that news networks

cannot lie about information to get stories and gain
listeners; however it means that it is harder to
putout big world news items so more stations resort
to smaller celebrity news.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32429614
this is an example of an international news story
that the BBC would have to have to have permission to
publish this story because it is about international
relations.