Sourcing stories and story types lecture

Lecture w/ Jo- Ideas lab

Google the associations of things for example; sports associations
In regards to the psychological effects of child beauty pageants email the authors of articles.

To do 

• Contact pageant organisers
• Contact ex champions of pageants 
• Contact authors
• Look into more pageants; Junior Miss + Mr Worldwide, Miss Diamond SW Heat
• Search for organisations

People to email:

Rosy Mary Roche author of 'Ugly side of child beauty pageants'- possibly contact David Carey who is referenced in the article

Zawn Villines author of 'Beauty pageants and children: it's not always pretty

Jane Graham author of 'Child beauty pageants: A psychologically damaging catwalk of vulgarity'

Martina M Cartwright author of 'Child beauty pageants what are we teaching our girls'

**Look into press releases although it's news they want you to have-contact papers??**

Sourcing stories and story types w/ Helen

How journalists find stories with news value

-Prioritising sources= some dominant= for example politicians come above general public

Where the newsroom finds it sources

PRIMARY SOURCES 

Your own direct contacts 

Original sources direct from source material eg archive material from libraries etc such as Kew (National Archives) 

PUBLIC APPEALS 

PRESS RELEASES/STATS/OFFICIAL STATEMENTS 

SECONDARY SOURCES 

STRINGERS (FREELANCERS) 

OTHER PLATFORMS/MEDIA 

Wires

Newsrooms often look through 'the wires' for up to the minute tip offs on stories such as;

P.A. (Press Association) – provide a range of news stories and content for print and digital media for the UK and Ireland. 

Reuters – international news agency - Link to website

Correspondents

Subject specialists work in newsrooms have in depth knowledge and well honed contacts, often invited to confidential 'lobby' (groups of journalists and other relevant people) briefings with politicians and on the mailing lists of important relevant people.

Foreign news sources

Journalists, editors and correspondents based permanently abroad for news networks. They're valued for their local contact and on the ground knowledge and access. 

Archives

Many broadcasters have their own archived material which is a good source of pictures, as well as independent archives which sell on their material under license.

Fake news

The difference between selling and story telling. Fake news looks and sounds like real legitimate news packages, the stories are very often propaganda. 

It's more often then not UGC=user generated content. Blurring the lines between marketing and news.

Communication

However you source your information and stories, you need to be a good communicator in order to access these. You need to know the essentials before you call contacts and know what questions you want to ask. Emails are good for exchanging information and more functional tasks, build a rapport with the person.

Always be ethical in finding ways of negotiating obstacles to access what you need, be prepared to push to a story and find a new way of telling you story in order to make it work.

When people are reluctant to take part, sometimes with good reason, it is useful to explain that this is their chance to put their side of the story. Identify key contacts through research.

Deadlines

Ultimately you will always have DEADLINES so at some point you will have to deliver, however some stories take TIME so make sure you give them what they need to ensure your story is as good as you can get it.

Find your angle

The news ‘angle’ is key to developing your story. The angle can be defined as the main significance of the story to your particular audience. There will inevitably be several angles on any story, your job is to decide the angle which best suits and sells your story and will engage your audience. 

What makes a story 'newsworthy'?

Choosing the ‘lead’ story is key in determining the ‘most newsworthy’ story of that particular bulletin. The lead story might vary at different times of the day, for example water shed etc

Newsworthyness

Deciding what’s important and putting it in order for the programme. Typically you will see 10-15 news stories per 30min news programme.

Part of the task is balancing the tone of the range of stories offered. Journalistic instinct plays a strong part in this decision. Key areas which determine this decision are: 

• LOCATION 
• TIMELINESS 
• IMPACT 
• PROMINENCE/’IMPORTANCE’ 
• CONFLICT 
• SIMPLICITY 
• BROADCASTER’S ‘VALUES’ 

Developing you story

You need to do a lot research and match it with a lot of detailed and accurate note-taking. Be organised and ensure you keep contacts and relevant information somewhere you can easily access it.

Setting up your story

Proof of your journalistic skills is when you try to set your story up to shoot it. By the time you set it up you should be clear about: 

• WHAT YOUR STORY IS (and is not) 
• WHO IS IN YOUR STORY (ditto) 
• WHERE IT IS (location/s) 
• WHEN IT IS TO BE SHOT (schedule) 
• HOW YOU WILL TELL IT (treatment/style/angle) 
• WHY you are making the story! (it’s raison d’etre)

Following up leads

The contacts you make in the early stages of research should lead you to the final elements which you will include in your news story. Choices you make will be made on the basis of availability, location, cost etc. Be sure you are including elements which are a fair and reasonable representation of the facts. MOST IMPORTANTLY STAY OBJECTIVE. 

Do not burn bridges be; open, fair, honest, direct and be aware that you are making an intrusion onto their time. Thank contributors and let them know when/where the piece they feature in will be aired/ published.

Television news story forms

5 BASIC TYPES: 

READERS (“tell” stories) 

OOVS/VO (Out of Vision/voice-overs) 

VO/SOT (voice-overs/sound on tape) 

REPORTER PACKAGES

Readers

A short story which the presenter reads out with no video to accompany it or any full screen graphics Usually used for shorter stories and possibly refer to a story which might have video at a future time as available, because it's breaking news.

OOVs and Vo

These are stories which the presenter reads which also includes video material. They're often quite short. If the presenter is reading over graphics it might be annotated as VO/g. (Voice Over w/ graphics)

OOVs add variety of pace to the newscast, they're especially useful when covering an event and it is not necessary to hear from someone at that event.

They are also used if there is a late-breaking story which has been sent through and there isn’t time to produce a full package. 

It may also depend on whether there are many other more ‘important’ full packages already in the bulletin. 

How to make an OOV

Source your story and relevant information. 

Expand and script information to produce a crafted story. 

Boil down to the essentials of the story and find your ANGLE. 

Can use archive or stock shots/Graphics also useful (usually for statistics and other data, quotes, charts and graphs, maps, to aid explanation to detailed concepts)-keep the graphics simple and be careful of copyright of source material used for graphic images, such as maps. 

Add sound – natural atmos is important to avoid a ‘flat’ report.

OOV/SOT

Good for varying pace of the programme and allows a more in-depth news report, but not as in depth as a full news package. Useful when covering an events and need someone there to comment (preferably someone directly affected rather than ‘official spokesperson’) 

News package

News packages are fully formed self contained news pieces. Unlike OOVs and OOV/SOTs the news presenter is not involved in the storytelling itself, but rather in introducing and wrapping up the story the reporter takes the lead on the story. There are a variety of elements available in a news package. These include: 

• Interviews 
• PTCs (pieces to camera) 
• Sequences & actuality 
• GVs/cutaways 
• Set ups 
• Graphics 

Therefore the story needs to be worked out before the shoot to include elements such as the piece to camera. This can be done either on paper or if time pressure does not allow (incase there is a quick turn around of the story) then it will have to be worked out on the spot prior to shooting. 

**From this lecture I learnt the various elements of a news report such as 'News Package' and 'Voice Over', this allows my group to consider we could and could not use in our report. As well as this I learnt the short hand for all these terms 'VO' etc, this will be helpful when my group writes our script as it will prevent us re-writing the longer names over and over again**