News Terminology



Term
Definition
Anchor
  Studio-based presenter of a news show, who holds it all together
Assignment
  The story or angle a reporter is asked to investigate. This may be a single piece or an in-depth investigation that leads to several stories
Bias
 Lack of objectivity, approaching a news story with a set of conclusions already in place, allowing opinion to shape the telling of a story
B-Roll
 General covering footage shot to provide background to a news script e.g. exteriors of buildings, general crowd shots
Byline
 The name credit that is attached to a story. Sometimes this is simply "Staff Reporter" but more senior journalists get regular bylines, and often a photo.
Chequebook journalism
 Practice of paying individuals for their exclusive story eg) the victim of a kidnapping
Citizen journalism
 News elements (video, still photographs, personal accounts published on a blog) gathered by non-professionals who may have had closer proximity to a news event than the pros.
Coverage
 Footage and reporting available to a newscast on a particular story at any given time
Digital news services
 News which reaches a segmented audience through cable subscriptions and broadband internet
Embedded
 (Neologism from the Iraq war) a reporter embedded into a military unit, exposed to the same risks as them, and supposedly able to report from the front line, unmediated.
Editor
 Person in charge of a news segment - a chief editor will be in charge (ie responsible for if anything should be or go wrong) the whole bulletin
ENG
 Electronic News Gathering - the process of sending sound and images down a wire from a field location, rather than physically bringing a tape back to the studio
Exclusive or Scoop
  When a news organisation gets to a story first, or when they have information (e.g. an eyewitness account) unavailable to other news organisations. Thanks to the speed of news exchange via internet, exclusives don't stay exclusive for more than a few minutes.
Feed
 Communication of a stream of images and/or sound between a situation and a studio via a news truck. May often be live
Hard News
  Current, timely news which must be reported there and then, without opinion. Usually to do with politics and governments. Most news organisations will report the same hard news on a given day.
Impartiality
  A legal requirement that news organisations in the UK present a balance of political views, over time and within an individual newscast.
Leak
 An unauthorised (supposedly) release of confidential information to a journalist
Ownership
  A big issue when considering the bias of news organisations and the free flow of information to the public: concentration, cross media ownership, conglomeration and globalisation are all important concerns
News Agency
  eg) Reuters, AP, providers of footage and information to other news organisations. Sometimes known as a wire service
News Agenda
  A list, drawn up by the editor, of stories that will be followed that day. This is known as the budget in a newspaper
News Language
  News language is very formal, but often contains jargon specific to an individual or ongoing story. News language can be responsible for many neologisms. The Language Monitor keeps you up to date with new and trending words of the year.
News Values
  Factors that denote how valuable a story might be to an audience, thus deciding its position in a news bulletin
OB (outside broadcast)
  Occurs when a satellite/news truck is set up to broadcast directly from a news event, which may be of a sporting nature
Rolling News
  24 hour news broadcasting, eg BBC World, CNN
Running Order
  Order of stories in a bulletin decided on by the editor according to their news values, and to make the news bulletin competitive with others.
Soft News
  General or human interest story, often can be run without time pressures (ie when the news organisation has space). Sometimes referred to as feature news. Much more editorial choice is exercised over soft than hard news.
Sound bite
  A short but complete statement which provides an emphatic point of view from an interviewee. Some politicians are very practised in the art of soundbites, as it is a good way of getting your views across on TV - no long, complex explanations required.
Spin Doctor
  Someone whose job it is to represent an individual or a series of government policies in the news in the best possible light. Tony Blair has been much criticised for the use of spin doctors.
Tabloid
  A tabloid-sized newspaper OR Populist reporting which uses sensationalist angles and may not be as rigorous as it could be when it comes to fact checking
Talk-back
  When a live, on-the-scene reporter communicates with a studio anchor via an earpiece
Vox Pop
  Public opinion as expressed by random interviewees 'in the street'. Sometimes known as a MOS (Man On Street)