Radio Production Curriculum

The goal of the radio production training program is to create radio professionals who will produce audio segments not only for Grassroots DC but also for other media outlets with a wider audience. Bearing that in mind, we do our best to train students in every aspect of production that will be useful to the freelance contributor, including audio recording, audio editing, writing for radio, etc. Radio students and producers typically work on a per-project basis. Prior to taking on an issue or event to cover, new radio production students must complete the following courses:

  • Media Literacy 101: Deconstructing the News Lead
  • Writing for Radio: Headlines Exercise
  • Media Literacy 102: Deconstructing the News Wrap
  • Basic Audio Editing: Creating a News Wrap

To join an introductory media production class, contact Grassroots DC Coordinator Liane Scott at .

Media Literacy 101: Deconstructing the News Lead

As media consumers we watch the news, listen to it on the radio or read about it in the newspaper. We may react to a story positively or negatively but we don't think much about how the news is put together. Who decides what event or issue is worth covering? What sources does the news media rely on and who decides what questions to ask those sources? How is all that information condensed into nice neat little audio or video packages that often must fit into the short time allotted between commercial breaks? The goal of this class is to get students to think about what it means to produce the news as well as to give them some of the most basic skills they'll need to become radio producers.

Objectives

  • Students will identify the parts of a newscast and learn some of the basic vocabulary of radio production.
  • Students will identify the kinds of stories students will be expected to produce for the Grassroots Media Project.
  • Students will identify and deconstruct the "lead" in a variety of news stories.

Materials Needed

  • News Transcript - from CNN Newsroom (transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/nr.html), PBS Newshour ( or Free Speech Radio News (fsrn.org/newscast)
  • Washington Post–
  • Associated Press International – hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/APNewsFeeds
  • Basic Radio Vocabulary List

Procedure

The class instructor should give an introduction to the radio class: what we hope student will get out of it and what we hope they'll contribute to Grassroots DC. It would probably be a good idea to play at least one example of something that's been produced by a radio student. At the end of this, students should be asked to identify a story or issue they want to use to produce a radio segment.

Identify the different parts of a newscast using a transcript from one of the sources provided.Pass out a basic vocabulary list and as you go through the parts of the newscast identify the basic vocabulary. Highlight the words that you'll be using most--lead, feature, actuality, etc.

Students should find two news stories on the Internet, one from a radio program and the other from a newspaper or a press agency. Ask them to read the lead for each story out loud. The lead is generally the first paragraph of a news report that concisely provides the main facts (who, what, where, when, why and how) of the story. The radio story should be an easier read because it was written to be read aloud. Next students should break down the leads for each story by answering in their own words the questions, who, what, where, and when.

Being able to succinctly state the lead to the stories that they are covering is a basic step that radio producers must do repeatedly. Getting into the habit of identifying leads within the news stories that you hear, watch or read is good practice.

Finally, students should find the answers to the following questions.

  • How whatever the story is about happened?
  • Why whatever the story is about happened?
  • What does it mean for the people who are affected?

These questions are more complicated. Their answers may or may not be found in the lead. Depending on your source and the length of your piece, they may not be answered at all. Corporate-owned news sources don't always attempt to answer these questions because they fear being accused of bias or because they do not want to offend or implicate corporate or government alliances. We also believe revealing why things are as they are, how they got that way, who and how people are affected are just as important as who, what, where and when. When you are preparing the leads for the news stories that you will produce, try to include some of those questions and answers.

Jubilant crowd in Cairo predicts Mubarak's rule soon will end

By Griff Witte

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, February 1, 2011; 1:09 PM

CAIRO - Hundreds of thousands of cheering demonstrators packed this capital city's central plaza Tuesday, triumphantly predicting that their week-old pro-democracy movement was on the verge of ousting long-time President Hosni Mubarak.

Unlike last week's demonstrations, when police clashed violently with protesters, the atmosphere in jam-packed Tahrir Square was almost carnival-like. Flag-waving demonstrators held signs that read "Game over" and "checkmate." Groups of protesters chanted, "Mubarak, wake up! Today is your last!"

[Article cut off after first two paragraphs.]

Egypt’s President Mubarak shuffles his cabinet while thousands continue protesting against his rule

[News Wrap from Free Speech Radio News]

After nearly a week of ongoing protests, Egyptians continued to defy government curfews and remained on the streets, calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. Tens of thousands rallied in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities. So far, more than 150 have been killed and thousands injured, according to Al Jazeera, whose reporters have visited morgues and counted bodies. Some properties are being looted and damaged. But many people are banding together, creating neighborhood protection committees, distributing bread and cleaning up trash in the streets. Even bigger rallies and a general strike are planned for Tuesday. On Sunday, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei joined demonstrators in Tahrir square and briefly addressed the crowd:

“As we mentioned before we have a key demand: for the regime to step down and to start a new era.”

Sound courtesy of Al Jazeera. President Mubarak refuses to step down and today swore in a reorganized cabinet, including a new interior minister. But many former senior officials remained involved, and repression continues. Internet and cell phone access remains blocked and the government revoked Al Jazeera’s operating licenses and arrested a number of its journalists. They were later released, but their equipment was confiscated. The military says they will not use force against demonstrators, but maintains a strong presence in the streets, with tanks on the ground and fighter jets in the sky. Police are also returning to their posts after some violent confrontations with demonstrators.

Radio Production Vocabulary List
Newscast: A newscast is the broadcast of the news. A news broadcast generally includes a host or anchor person who reads the headlines and then introduces pre-recorded news reports. The news reports that make up a newscast vary in length and style. Depending on the format of the show, the anchor or host may also interview guests.
Headlines: A summary of the top news stories of the day, usually read by an anchor or reporter near or at the beginning of a newscast.

Copy: The script that an anchor reads during a newscast. The narration that a reporter includes in a voicer, news wrap, news report or feature.

News Report: A pre-produced audio segments. A series of these makes up the body of the newscast. News reports come in a variety of lengths and styles.
Lede or Lead In: The first paragraph of a news report that concisely provides the main facts of the story. This generally includes the who, what, where and when of a story and is usually, but not always, read by the program host or anchor to introduce the news report. If you are producing a stand alone podcast then the lede will need to be included in the report itself.
Soft Lede: A news report might begin with a lede or it might begin with some "hot sound" designed to catch the attention of the audience. This is called a soft lead and is generally used to set the scene or provide human interest before providing the facts of the story. Soft ledes are used more often in longer features than in short news wraps or news spots.
Voicer or Reader: News without tape or actuality, just a reporter's voice. Headlines are often delivered without any actuality and would be considered a voicer or a reader.

Actuality: Also referred to as ax, cut, or bite, actuality refers to a piece of sound of a person talking. It may be taken from an arranged interview, a man on the street survey or it may be part of an event, i.e., speakers at a rally or press conference, etc. Television journalists call it the sound bite. "Actualities" generally run longer than a common "soundbite", but the terms are sometimes used interchangibly.
Source: Any person in the story who is not the reporter, the people who provide the information being reported. Every person who provides actuality for a story is a source.

ID or Announce - To identify a source in a story, name and title. Usually done just before a person starts talking, or just after they've started talking and before they're through. After a long actuality, it may be necessary to back-ID or back-announce a source. If a report uses a series of short clips that refer to a single question or idea, it can be useful to back-ID each source after the clips have played through rather than identifying each source before each clip.

News Wrap: A story that includes actuality. It tends to follow the pattern: reporter's voice, actuality, reporter's voice. In other words, the actuality is wrapped around the reporter's voice.
Spot: A short news report, less than a minute, for inclusion in a newscast.
Feature: is a news wrap in the sense that it uses both a reporters voice and actuality. Where as a news wrap or a news spot is extremely focused and covers only one idea, a feature explores a topic in more depth. A feature is longer than a news wrap, usually includes ambient sound and multiple speakers.

Ambience or Ambient Sound: The natural sounds of the place you are reporting from: birds, waves crashing, phones ringing, crowd chanting, etc.

Tagline, SOC or Sockout: the last line you read in your story. SOC stands for "Standard Out Cue" and it's the last line you read in your story--Brenda Hayes, Grassroots Media Project, Washington, DC.

Writing For Audio: Headlines Exercise

As was suggested in the previous lesson, every news story, whether its radio, video or text-based, starts out with a presentation of the basic facts--the who, what, where, when, why and how of the story. This is generally referred to as the lead or (particularly in radio, spelled lede). Regardless of the format of a story—headlines, news wrap, news feature, even a call to action campaign video—news reporters need to know the lead to their story. In this lesson, students will learn to write leads as they appear in the headlines of a news broadcast.

Objectives

  • Students will learn the basics of writing for radio.
  • Students will learn how to operate an audio recorder.
  • Students will produce the "headlines" for a typical radio newscast.

Materials Needed

  • Computers with Internet Access
  • Washington Post–
  • Associated Press International – hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/APNewsFeeds
  • Audio Recorder
  • Radio Grammar Guidelines

Procedure

Using the Washington Post and the Associated Press International, students should identify three to five stories that they believe should be in the headlines of a news broadcast. They should then copy the "lead" for each of their chosen stories. A newspaper lead is not written to be read out loud as is the copy written for radio. For this reason, radio copy is simpler and more straightforward then newspaper copy. Using the radio grammar guidelines students should re-write their leads to be read as headlines at the top of a newscast.

As each student completes the assignment, they should make an audio recording of their headlines. This will give the instructor an opportunity to go over the basic operations of the audio recorder as well as proper microphone placement with each student.

When the headlines are complete, play them back for the entire class. Discuss why students chose the headlines that they chose. Then consider other possible sources for stories that might be included in the headlines. Other sources might be the Washington Peace Center's activist calendar, events you hear about on list serves, or the activists and organizers that you know.

Finally,go back to the campaigns and issues that the students identified as being of interest to them. If they haven't come up with a specific issue or event that they would like to cover, spend some time exploring potential topics. If they do know what they want to cover, have them write up a potential lead for their story. Knowing the "who, what, where, when, why and how" of a story is the first step in the pre-production of any audio segment that you plan to put together. You'll also need it if you plan to pitch your idea to a radio program producer.

Rules For Radio Grammar

Write in the active voice.

Use present tense verbs.

Round off numbers unless there is a crucial reason not to use a whole number.

Use everyday words.

When writing sentences, keep them short and fast.

Every second counts. Write short sentences with one basic idea in each. We are trying to cram information into peoples' ears, one short line at a time. Long, complicated sentences full of big words don't make you sound smart. Say what you mean, throw away all unnecessary words, and try to maintain a conversational style.

Put the subject at the front of each sentence, using the formula:

(subject) + (verb) + (object) + (...all other stuff)

"The White House + denies + the charge."

"Mrs. Williams + says + the police + (are lying about her son's death)."

"Hamil Schlomo + sprints + the path to Jericho + (every morning, worried he might be shot by a sniper or run over by a jeep)."

Long, newspaper-style sentences should be broken up into smaller sentences:

"For the fifth night in a row, denizens of the tunnels underneath Penn Station, the "Mole People", are worrying that the police might barge in and evict them for tresspassing on City property."

...is not a bad sentence, but it's a mouthful to read and understand. It should be broken up into smaller ones:

"The so-called "Mole People" under Penn Station are worried. They say the police want to evict them from the tunnels where they live. Technically they're tresspassing on city property."

Sentences should be written in the positive, as opposed to the negative sense, as often as possible.Avoid using "not", "no", "don't", "doesn't", "won't", etc.

"The union leadership doesn't accept that version of the story."

...can be rewritten in the positive:

"The union leadership says the story is a lie."

"Union leaders refuse to accept that version of the story."

Write in the present tense, whenever possible:

"The White House denies the charge," is easier for the listener to understand and faster to read than thesecommon alternatives:

"The White House is denying the charge."

"The White House has been denying the charge."

Avoid common cliches in your writing, overused phrases and sentence constructions:

"...in the wake of September 11..."

"This, as police announced..."

"..against the backdrop of clan violence..."

These are often refered to as "groaners", because they make many radio listeners groan to hear them. A groaner can't be easily defined, and some cannot always be avoided. Many lists of these terms can be found on the web.

Be descriptive. The listener cannot see what you see unless you describe it. This is radio, not television.

Read what you write out loud. If you cannot say it, rewrite it.

Write as if you are telling someone else the story in person.

Words to avoid in radio writing, whenever possible:

All forms of the verb TO BE (is, am, are, were, will be, have been, being, will have been, etc.)

"Raines is asking the officer for his one phone call."