The ‘Style’ Guide

Contents:

FORMS

  • Bulletin
  • Headline
  • News Programme
  • Copy only
  • With audio clips
  • Wraps
  • Live cross
  • Two way (live and as live)

STYLES

  • Related to audience
  • Public service
  • Commercial
  • Community
  • Small-scale
  • Local
  • Regional
  • National
  • Internet
  • Satellite & cable

PART 2

Legal & regulatory constraints:

  • Handling of stories involving minors
  • Contempt of court
  • Libel & defamation
  • Coverage of elections
  • Official secrets act
  • Ofcom
  • BBC editorial guidelines

Ethics (DEBATE):

  • Serious & sensational stories
  • Invasion of privacy
  • Public interest

News values:

  • Story priority (national & local, domestic & foreign)
  • Immediacy
  • Follow-up angles
  • Availability of audio
  • Newsroom policy
  • Human interest
  • Public interest agenda

FORMS

BULLETIN

A bulletin is defined as a broadcasted short summary of news. The fact it’s only a brief summary means that in-depth detail is avoided and only key points are expressed in the broadcast in order to get as much of the daily news in as possible.

The BBC would be a good example of a news bulletin, this is their five minute news bulletin from BBC World Service on radio. People predominantly listen to the radio when in their cars. This was broadcasted at 8:00am, this is prime time for people to be in the car on the way to work or school runs etc. meaning people are only listening to the radio for a shorter period of time. We don’t sit to listen to the radio the way we sit to watch the TV. Therefore News reporters need to get as much of the daily news in a shorter broadcast time as possible in order for listeners to hear everything. The news bulletin’s differ depending in what station as they all have different target audiences. The BBC bulletin involves the daily important more intelligent news, whereas Kiss FM give more celebrity news & gossip, as well as incorporating some of the more important topics but predominantly showcasing ‘fun’ news.

Due to news bulletins on the radio being audio based, it is better to keep them short, as listeners aren’t going to want to listen to the news for an hour like when we watch TV, which is different as we get the visual aspect as well as the audio aspect.

HEADLINE

The next form is a headline. A headline is the title of the story used to draw the audience in to the rest of the story. It is used to introduce the rest of the story. They tend to be short & sharp in order to get the main point of the story in one sentence.

Headlines are found in most reports. For example in this BBC Radio 4 news report ( their first headline at 00.24 “Police investigating disappearance of 24 year old student in Glasgow”. This is a good example of a headline as it is short, concise and expresses the key issue in the story. Headlines are the part of the story we read/listen to first, so it needs to be something that will draw us in as well as be informative.

NEWS PROGRAMME

A news programmes is a particular section devoted to the news. These give us detailed and in-depth descriptions of what is going on. For example here, on Radio 4’s webpage they have an entire category dedicated to News podcasts: News briefing, midnight news etc.

News programmes differ slightly than something like a bulletin. This is because bulletin’s give a brief of the daily news, whereas news programmes tend to be more specific to location or 1 or 2 big stories. Here in this thirty minute broadcast they discuss national as well as international news. Or just in more depth in general. ( Similar to bulletin’s, news programmes differ depending on the audience.

Different news programmes word their script differently based on their audience. This is because your target audience needs to be able to understand and be interested in what you're discussing. For example, these two scripts have different target audiences, which is apparent on the wording. The Newsbeat script uses slightly more informal language and shorter more concise points whereas the Five Live news fleshes the story out more. As well as uses language such as "Tony Blaire has said remarkable progress is being made". The other report discussing the same story states "Tony Blaire thanked troops for the courage they've shown". This is done because they need to relate to their target audience, therefore using slightly more sophisticated language such as "remarkable progress" would relate to Five Live's audience a lot better than "thanked troops", however this slightly more informal tone relates perfectly to the Newsbeat audience.

COPY ONLY

This form of radio is where the story is read by the news reporter alone, meaning no interviews, video clips etc. Just the reporter reading the current events. This tends to be the case on new events when not much information is released so only a small description is available.

( is the BBC’s midnight news. From 8.20-8.44 would be a copy only story. The reporter is giving a brief explanation of what has happened without the aid of interviews etc. This is because it is a new story so not much information has been released. This feature isn’t used usually unless it is a new story as things like interviews and cross overs make the report more interesting to listen to.

WITH AUDIO CLIPS

This form is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a broadcast that holds interviews and pre-recorded audio clips to incorporate in the news show.

Audio clips are used to give a different perspective, they can be used as a debate tool where the pre-recorded clip suggests one thing which the news reporter can then fall back on to create a discussion. Therefore making it more interesting to the listener. Audio clips allow listeners to get more of an understanding as to what’s going on rather than with copy only when we hear the story in less detail as only one presenter is explaining. In this BBC radio news broadcast we here an audio clip from David Cameron, this is done to give the listeners more of an insight and a political view on the topic.

News bulletins tend to lack in audio clips, this is because they are a summary therefore a lot shorter, so interviews and pre-recorded material isn’t really necessary. However on something like a news programme you are more likely to find audio clips as they discuss the topics in greater depth, therefore a different perspective etc. is beneficial.

WRAPS

A wrap is the ending to a news story (wrapping up). This is usually done by saying “in other news”. This is to change the topic without it seeming too abrupt.

(2.30-2.36) this is an example of a wrap when the reporter says, “anything could happen. Here…” The ‘here’ is to indicate a change in news topic.

LIVE CROSS

This is somewhat similar to ‘with audio clips’ as it doesn’t just involve the one presenter. A live cross is when the presenter crosses over to another presenter, usually out of the studio on a set location.

We usually see this in sports on the radio. For example on talkSPORT ( here they do a live cross over from the studio over to Spain. The effect this would have on us as listeners is that it allows us to feel more part of the action as we are hearing the player speak live from another country. It also makes the story more exciting to listen to as we hear an interview and the players’ thoughts, not just the stations presenter thoughts.

TWO WAY (LIVE AND AS LIVE)

Similar to live cross, however the footage is pre-recorded. This means it can be played at any time in the radio show.

Again, in this BBC midnight news show, they incorporate two way (live and as live) (4.48-5.29). Here they use pre-recorded information by David Cameron discussing property prices and their tax. This is important to the broadcast because we get to hear and understand more of the story by hearing from our Prime minister.

STYLES

RELATED TO AUDIENCE

Related to audience is how the radio station targets their demographic. This can be done in many ways, from what music they play, what stories they say in the news, and who presents it.

Relating to the audience is key when running a radio station, if your show doesn’t relate to the audience, they’re won’t be an audience. Take Capital FM for example. They pride themselves on being the number 1 hit music station, they target their ‘music loving fans’ by playing the latest hits in the charts as they know this is what they’re fans want. Not just what music choice you play makes an impact on the audience, but also what news stories. For example BBC Radio 4. According to their service license “The service should appeal to listeners seeking intelligent programmes in many genres which inform, educate and entertain." Meaning their target demographic would be people who enjoy intelligent programmes therefore suggesting a slightly older audience. BBC Radio 4 relate to their audience well by using a presenter of a similar age group to the audience. 30+. This would help relate to the audience as it means the presenter would be on a similar wave-length to the audience. BBC Radio 4 have also used the topic of their news stories to relate to the audience. This is done by only the most important stories are mentioned, national & international, there is no sports news or anything with a slightly more upbeat nature. For example this Radio 4 broadcast ( ‘World at One’ we can hear that they have tried to reach out to their audience by using a presenter of a similar age, hosted by Martha Kearney (57). Not only this but also the topics, they start by discussing politics (0.10) and ending with politics (56.38), suggesting their intelligent audience. Whereas on the Capital FM news bulletin they discuss celebrity news, this is because they are the ‘number 1 hit music station’, meaning their listeners will want to hear the latest celebrity gossip.

This is important in all styles of radio, in particular with small-scale radio stations as they have a more specific target audience.

As previously mentioned in ‘news programmes’, radio stations alter their script in order to relate to the audience. A radio station with a younger audience may want to include celebrity news as well as important news whereas a station with a more mature audience might only express the important news as their audience may have no interest in celebrity news. For example in these two screenshots (top, heart radio news bulletin. Bottom, BBC Radio news highlights). Heart radio have a showbiz section whereas BBC Radio only discuss topics the more mature audience would relate too, hence why there are no showbiz clips.

PUBLIC SERVICE

Public service radio is radio that is funded by the public through license fees. This means it has to be an accurate representation of the UK and more for the public use rather than commercial use, therefore there is no room to be biased.

BBC are a public service broadcaster, they have to follow a set of guidelines in order to appeal to the public who fund them. These guidelines include: “promoting education & learning; representing the UK, its nations & regions; bringing the UK to the world & the world to the UK”. They achieve these guidelines by targeting to a variety of people. They have created multiple radio stations in order to do this, Radio 1, radio 4 etc. These two stations have completely opposite audiences, meaning the BBC has created a station for everyone therefore serving the public. Meaning they have to say what the public want to hear. For example the elections, on the BBC we would hear a variety of opinions whereas on a commercial station they are allowed to express their personal feelings as they don’t have to directly serve the public’s opinions.

COMMERCIAL

Commercial radio is radio that gains its budget from sponsorship & advertising. These radio stations tend to serve local/regional areas. The effect this has on radio news is that due to it being local/regional they are more targeted towards regions & culture etc.

Commercial radio stations are usually owned by one of the three: Global, Bauer & UTV. Bauer owns stations such as Magic. Magic has a target audience of 25-44 year olds who enjoy being entertained, whereas BBC Radio 4’s audience of 35+ year olds who enjoy the more formal tone. They allow sponsorship opportunities in order to promote their new ideas. For example for Magic’s Christmas single they were allowing people to apply for sponsorship in order to gain public awareness of the single. This is what makes them a commercial radio stations.

COMMUNITY

Community radio serves geographic communities & communities of interest. This means that they have a coverage radius of about 5km. Radio stations such as Penwith Radio, which is made for the Penzance population: as well as Marlow FM, for Marlow & Big City radio, for Birmingham.

According to OFCOM, community radio serves a purpose not just to talk at the community but become a big part of it, this involves encouraging & allowing members of the community to be involved in the radio station. Presenters on community radio are volunteers allowing opportunities for everyone. For community radio a license isn’t necessary unless you are a registered company, if that is the case then only one community radio license is available. In terms of income, advertising is allowed however half of the stations income needs to be from another area.

An example of community radio would be the Regatta radio, this airs every year during the Henley royal regatta, and this serves the community of Henley giving all the updates on races. Here is a clip from their 2014 Sunday highlights, aired on their radio station ( is very specific to the audience, involving details only from the Regatta serving the people of Henley’s interests

SMALL-SCALE

With an even smaller target audience than community, small-scale radio is usually done in universities & colleges. This means they would need to target specifically for the uni/college, involving topics such as college sports and upcoming events. For example Morton College Radio in the U.S.

Similarly to community radio, small-scale radio intends to give the opportunity of becoming a part of the station to everyone, being run by volunteers of the college.

Due to it being small-scale all the news topics will be local and to do with the community its serving. For example college radio, the news topics will be upcoming events of the college, any important information students need to know etc. These stations are only available to the college students and staff. Small-scale stations would have news updates on traffic in that particular area, and other news that is applicable to the area. This kind of news also tends to be slightly more informal than something like BBC Radio 4, this is because of the smaller audience. There are less people to directly relate to. Small-scale radio sounds incredibly similar to local radio however local radio is on a larger scale, for example BBC Radio Berkshire. That covers the whole of Berkshire not just one specific town. Therefore local radio is slightly more broad in terms of being specific to the area.

LOCAL

Local radio is radio focusing on a specific area e.g. Berkshire. Due to it being this specific news etc needs to be to do with the area. BBC does a lot of local radio news stations, for example BBC Berkshire.

Local radio stations target their audience obviously very specifically depending on the area. Including news stories only related to that area and addressing their audience specifically do this. For example, from listening to BBC Radio Berkshire it seems as if the presenters do more of the talking and play less music. Whereas on a radio station such as Capital FM, they tend to focus more on the music side than anything else, as they pride themselves on being “the number 1 hit music station”. This suggests the Berkshire audience to be slightly more mature (perhaps they don't want to listen to the charts all day), therefore they have to be addressed in a certain way. Depending on their interests. means all their news is Berkshire based. From listening to one of their broadcasts they have “local chef Paul Clerehugh brings his tips & favorite recipes for a great weekend…” the importance of this is the fact they are using local guests.

In terms of radio news all the topics in local news are based on the area the station is serving. For example BBC Radio Berkshire ( in this they discuss the murder of a boy from Reading, this is because the people of Berkshire will want to know about local events.

REGIONAL

Regional radio is radio targeted to a specific place, slightly larger than local radio, but smaller than National radio. The point of this is it allows specific listeners needs and wants to be met. Radio stations such as Capital FM are regional as they focus on London. Other examples would be Heart London Radio.