Educators

Lesson 6: Building a Newscast: Making Producer Decisions

Prepared by Debbie A. Owens , Murray State University

Objectives

1. To help students understand the decisions newscast producers make based on available content (i.e. written, visual elements) and on time constraints.
2. To help students develop strategies for building a television newscast.
3. To help students practice their news judgment skills and compare their proposed newscasts with one produced by a broadcast professional.

Teaching Materials
Handouts include:

• Handout with all of the available news content items (in no particular order)
• Handout with the rundown as prepared by a professional news producer
• Handout with the rundown as prepared by another professional news producer
• Handout with a blank rundown sheet

Instructor’s Guide
(Estimated time needed: 40 to 50 minutes minimum)

PART I - DISCUSSION
Begin with the question: “What types of decisions do newscast producers need to make while building a newscast?”

Producers (and to some degree directors) must make decisions about how a newscast looks and sounds. Producers base their decisions upon the amount of time available in the show, often called “the news hole,” the stories available, the personnel available (reporters and video journalists) and other factors, such as the station’s target audience and its coverage strategy.

A producer’s news judgment is important in determining story selection, treatment and placement of stories within the newscast. In other words, producers help decide what stories get covered, in what form and where they air within in a newscast. Many factors play into the decision process, including availability of content needed to tell the story (audio, video); production resources (studios, cameras, editing facilities); signal transmissions (live, remote, satellite); and even the time of day the story breaks.

Producers must also understand the technology of television newsgathering. At stations like WRAL-TV5, a CBS affiliate owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company in Raleigh, NC, broadcast journalists use several live remote production vans and a helicopter for newsgathering purposes.

Producers are expected to know all about and use the resources at two state-of-the art studios to produce several newscasts throughout the day, including a broadcast on a sister station WRAZ-TV, a FOX affiliate.

PART II - ASSIGNMENT
Depending upon the size of the class, students may be assigned to groups.

Provide students with handouts listing available news stories, including audio and video content.

Provide students with information about the television station’s production technology (2 remote trucks, 1 helicopter, CHROMA key wall, CG).

Provide students with a blank rundown sheet along with the available “news hole.”

Instruct students to review the available items looking for their news value and assessing the extent to which the stories are “doable.” Based on their assessments of these elements, students are to devise a production rundown sheet for a half-hour live newscast. Although they should list what will run during the A-block, students should identify the stories that will be teased deeper into the newscast.

PART III – COMPARISON & REVIEW
Students should be able to justify their decisions for how they have built the newscast.

Once students have completed their rundowns, show the class the actual rundowns and videos of the first blocks for WRAZ-TV and WRAL-TV.

This activity will allow students to offer critiques of the newscast and to compare and contrast their decisions with those of a professional producer. (Critiques may extend beyond the classroom discussion to include written comments that students hand in during the next class or lab session.)

© RTNDF Educator in the Newsroom Lesson Plans