TV News Notes - Sourcing Stories

Intro

• A broadcast Journalist relies on a wide range of sources and contacts (Find NEW NEWS)
• The best journalists don't wait for the news to appear they go and find it
• Some people in authority or a big company put on press releases but they will only tell the good parts of the story and what they actually want you to know
• Make sure that you don't give certain stories or people priority to keep it fair

Primary Sources

• Own direct contacts
• Original sources and material from the archive
• Public appeals
• Press releases - stats - official statements

Secondary sources

• Stringers (freelance)
• Other platforms / media

Wires

• Press Association provide a range of news stories and content for print and digital media for the UK And Ireland
• Reuters
• Try to do less work on google, search for an actual group rather than a generic word to try and find results

Correspondents

• Subject specialists work in newsrooms and are prized for their depth knowledge and well honed contracts
• Lobby politics Influenced groups Lobby the government in such meetings to get their views across and attempt to influence policy  

Foreign News Sources

• Journalists, editors and correspondents based permanently 
• Valued for local contacts and on the ground knowledge and access
• Often long hours and lots of travelling due to wide area covered and can be in dangerous and politically unstable areas
• International news agencies and large scale news organisations such as ABC and SKY
• Eurovision news exchange - Facilitates the exchange of stories between european countries. 

Fake NEWS

• They look like news packages and sound like them, but stories are to be approached with caution as they are often propaganda
• Think about why you are being told this story, Who is sending them to your timeline?
• Blurring the lines between Marketing and News
• Verify and check these stories

Communication

• Whatever source of information and stories you will need to be consummate communicator in order to access these.
• As with the documentary you need to know the essentials before you make a call, do your research and know what questions you want to ask
• Get used to using your telephone 
• Emails are good  for exchanging information but nothing beats a telephone call to help talk about something. Building a rapport, gauge the person you are talking to and make a decision about them and the story. 

Keep them on side

• Sometimes you need to be creative with ways to contact people
• Providing you are being ethical find good ways to negotiate obstacles to gain the access you need
• Often you need to have stamina and be prepared to push to get a story
• If people are unsure if they want to give part try and let them know this a great way to prove their point
• Don't give up on trying to find the right contact
• Art of tracking people is down is one you need to master, research to get those KEY CONTACTS
• Think outside the obvious to get what you need
• Possibly find someone on the other side of the story if you are struggling

Deadlines 

• You will always have deadlines so that you can deliver on time

Angle

• A news angle is a way to develop your story
• It can be defined as the main significance of the story to your particular audience, is there a particular viewpoint.
• There are several angles on any story your job is to decide which one appeals to your audience the best.

What makes it newsworthy? 

• Need to know
• Public interest, justifying what we are doing to tell the story to the massive
• Different agendas for different groups
• Lead story might vary at different times of the day
• Deciding what's important, and putting it in an order that makes the most sense 
• What is behind the news
• You will normally see between 15-20 new stories per day
• what is going through and what is not being told. This is how Fake news is rumbling the more established news sites
• They have to balance the good and bad news together even if it is mainly negative
• Even within your own story you will need to show the good and the bad mixed together to give a fairer view of the situation.

Key areas which determine a decision

1. LOCATION
2. TIMLINESS
3. IMPACT
4. PROMINANCE
5. CONFLICT
6. SIMPLICITY
7. BROADCASTERS VIEWS

Developing your story

• Copious research needs to be matched with copious note taking
• Be organised and ensure you keep your contacts relevant information somewhere you can easily access it (Contact list - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1usrVf9BzznOvZNhibEMNen5gZUDwWRSuG64TQXE1XNw/edit)
• Ensure the source is reliable "allegedly or apparently" is not good enough

Setting up your story

1. What your story is
2. Who is in your story
3. Where is it
4. When is it to be shot
5. How you will tell it
6. Why you are making the story 
7. Interesting way into the story

Following up your leads

• Early stages of research should lead you to the final elements which you will include in your story
• Inevitably there will be decisions made on the basis of availability, location cost etc (Costs Google docs- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KuLh0ODP-nihfzz_q1Dx5l2Lrk3agAzkOrb0W0hAQmo/edit )
• Respect the leads and be kind but not friends. Treat people as you want to be treated

TV News story forms

Basic Types

• READERS tell the stories with no pictures - Usually for shorter stories on one that doesn't have the pictures ready yet.
• OOV are presenters who are reading out of vision (voiceover but live) whilst pictures are playing and are normally short pieces. They can add a variety of pace to the newscast. possibly used for a late breaking story. GRAPHICS ARE USEFUL FOR STATISTICS.
• OOV/SOT Combo of of the previous two. Good for varying pace of the programme. Useful for covering an event and someone needs to comment.
• NEWS PACKAGEs are fully formed self contained news piece. News presenter is not involved in the story telling. Reporter takes the lead of the story. Do recce