Door vakgenoten beoordeeld
Radio journalists and how they describe their written copy
This article reports on a research project in which radio news writers are asked how they themselves would describe the process of writing for their medium, which, arguably is more ephemeral than other types of media. In their training, radio journalists are taught to ‘write for the ear’, to use ‘conversational language’ and to ‘paint pictures’. But what does that really mean to them in practice and how aware are they of the characteristics of radio news? A series of qualitative interviews was conducted with journalists and editors in the BBC Radio Newsroom and at Radio Netherlands in Hilversum. *The journalists questioned the use of terms such as simplicity, spoken language, storytelling and making it interesting to describe what they do. Some say they paint with words, that is, they describe to the listener what can be seen, whilst others say it is not their job to do so in the brief introductory pieces or short factual news summaries and headlines. To all radio news writers, story selection and ‘top lines’ are just as important, if not more so, than the choice of lexis
Artikel, 2009
Journal of Media Practice, 10, 20090101, 5
2009