Catching The Little Things
It's funny how the first thing people think about when you say "I'm majoring in Broadcast Journalism" is "Oh! Do you want to be an anchor?" For me, the desire to be on camera was never the reason I wanted to enter this program, it was the writing.
Luckily, I discovered I have a passion for writing during my junior year of high school right before I began looking at colleges. I didn't have a state-of-the-art broadcast program at my high school that taught me everything there is to know about broadcast journalism before I came to USC. I walked into my first journalism class completely oblivious to everything and anything to do with broadcast journalism. But I knew I loved to write.
For a broadcast, writing and copy editing is the key to success. Whatever you put on the teleprompter will be what the anchor says, so ensuring that their scripts flow, are easy to read and understand and don't have any mistakes is important.
I'll always remember the "mom rule" when it comes to broadcast writing. Every teacher or mentor I've had since coming to USC has drilled it into my brain that anything you write for a broadcast must be written in the way you would tell your mother. Meaning all scripts should be written in a concise, conversational way. This is key for broadcast writing. You don't want your anchors to get on-air and read a jumbled, incorrect script or even worse, a script that simply buries all the important information pertinent to the story in a flowery, gibberish language. To put it simply, with broadcast writing, follow the 3 C's: clear, concise and correct. Every sentence, every word written for an on-air broadcast or website should follow the 3 C's. If you can follow these 3 principles, whatever you have writtern will be ready for the air or web...or at least for its first round of copy edits.
When a story reaches the air, it should have been copy edited. Once, twice, three times, maybe even four. The same goes for any web story. In order to maintain a credible, accurate reputation as a news site or broadcast, copy editing should be a focus.
As a lead producer and video teammate, you are responsible for all writing that makes it to the teleprompter for an anchor to read. Every single word that is written in the rundown should be reviewed, multiple times, by one of these producers. In the past 3 weeks of ATVN broadcasts, Team Monday has learned the importance of copy editing. Because we are a student-run newscast, we cannot expect everyone to be an all-star broadcast writer. This is where the producers sweep in. Not only should we pay close attention to copy editing, we must teach the MJs or web writers how to improve their writing for the air or web.
Most of what we read in the rundown is not ready for air, or for the web. Because of this, copy editing is of the utmost importance. We must strive for perfection, to provide the most accurate and clear information for our viewers. In the past few weeks I have learned how copy editing can catch mistakes in spelling, fact providing and wording.
As we continue this semester, I think one of the main goals of Team Monday will be to have as many eyes reading each story as possible. While we are shooting for perfection, some things will slip through the cracks, but as long as our team is focused on perfecting each and every piece of writing attached to the name "ATVN," we can minimize mistakes.
And sometimes we won't catch things before 6 p.m., and that's when you find me talking in the ears of the anchors reminding them how to say Emanuel Pleitez's last name or typing as quickly as I can into the rundown hoping to change an awkward, incorrect script before it hits the teleprompter.
In the cases where we don't catch a poorly written script, at least we are providing decent material for the blooper reel!
