Documentaries are in-depth stories told in a more interesting way. They can range in length from 10 minutes to an hour for one episode although sometimes they can stretch to a series or podcast. A great documentary engages listeners and puts them at the heart of the storytelling.

So, what elements make for a superior documentary?

First of all, the story you tell must be compelling enough to sustain telling at length. That means there must be a number of connected strands in it which must be examined and then tied up at the end.

There must be a significant increase in understanding on the part of listeners. The documentary will have shed light on an issue and offered a signpost to the way ahead.

A great documentary is based on sound research in order to construct the central thesis or argument. Good research involves exploring not just who might speak but also what they might say. It will explore all the aspects of a story even though some might lead to dead ends or blind alleys.

Every line of script in the documentary will need to be based on evidence. Every assertion made in the script must be based in reality and accuracy. Even when interviewees are making a point of view, their opinion must be backed by facts you can independently verify.

If your documentary is based on a theory which requires an answer from a relevant organisation or authority make sure that interview is the last in the sequence. That way you can make sure every relevant question can be put.

When you are recording natural sound or a reporter piece into the microphone make sure you record from the heart of the action, so listeners feel they are embedded in the item. So if you are recording a market scene, stand right next to the customer and the trader, not 15 metres away.

Unlike a radio feature, the documentary medium allows listeners to breathe and take in the atmosphere. You should aim for a roughly one third split between script, interviews, and sound effects (including music and natural sound).

Separate out your recordings into one folder for interviews, one for natural sound effects, and one for music. Listen through to all the interviews and select strong clips of your interviewees. Factual information can go into your script. The interview clip is where you can let your subjects speak powerfully and with emotion.

Arrange the clips in the order you would like them to appear in the programme. When you’ve identified the clips, start writing the script.

Use natural sound and music to create the mood and atmosphere.

The programme should flow along at a reasonable pace, but remember to give time for the listener to breathe in the atmosphere.

When you’ve assembled the script, clips, music and natural sound in the order you would like, try reading out the script in relation to everything else.

When you’re happy it works well together, record your voice pieces.

Enjoy making documentaries!

The post Making documentaries for radio first appeared on Media Helping Media.

We edit audio because we do not always have the time on air to broadcast a whole interview. Before you start editing audio, always ask the editor or producer of the item how long the edited item should be.

Make sure you are familiar with editing software you are using.

Ask whether you need to edit a cut down of the whole interview including your questions or if you are to provide one or more clips of just the interviewee talking.

Listen to the whole interview all the way through once, taking note of key points and noting down a time code for each important point made by the interviewee.

Listen out for poor quality. If you can’t hear what’s being said, it’s unlikely your listeners will be able to.

There are two main ways to edit – amputation and filleting.

Amputation implies cutting short the whole interview or cutting out whole questions and answers.

Filleting means taking only the essential parts of each answer and cutting out a little of each answer.

Amputation risks leaving out relevant information while filleting can result in an interview which sounds disjointed and unnatural.

Allow interviewees to sound as if they are having a conversation. It is not your job to make the interviewee sound more fluent or more polished.

However if they interject with hesitations such as ‘um’ and ‘er’ or leave long pauses in their answers, you should consider editing some of these out if it helps the listener understand what is being said.

Be careful not to cut all the hesitations and pauses out because that can sound artificial and unnatural.

Never take one answer and edit it as a response to another question. This is unethical and unprofessional.

Radio is a medium that is based on your ears. That mean when you edit audio, try not to edit using just the screen. Pay more attention to how it sounds rather than how it looks on the screen.

When you have finished editing, always listen back to the finished edit to make sure you have fulfilled the brief you were given, that you have captured all the relevant points the interviewee made, and that you have represented the interviewees points fairly and accurately.

The post Editing audio for radio news first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Bulletins are designed to collect all the news that’s relevant into one specific broadcast, usually a few minutes long.

Each bulletin will have a variety of stories reflecting the latest information your listeners are interested in. They are not comprehensive. They should give a flavour of the main points of the stories.

If you are working for a small radio station you will probably be gathering and editing the material for the bulletins and reading them yourself. If you work for a large broadcaster you might be editing the bulletin for a presenter to read.

Stories will consist of the following types: a straight read by the presenter; sections of text followed by a clip or clips of audio; an introduction followed by a piece by a reporter.

Work backwards from the on-air time and give yourself enough time for preparation. For example, you need time to print off scripts, brief your presenter if necessary and to get to the studios.

If you are the bulletin editor you need to give journalists clear instructions about what they are expected to deliver, the length of the item they are producing, the format it is expected to take and when it is meant to be ready.

Give yourself time to look at the story and check it for grammatical and factual errors. Read it out loud to make sure it makes sense and can be easily understood by listeners.

When you have collected all the stories you will use for the bulletin, always add a couple of extra items if possible. This is to allow for technical errors with audio and so on.

Try to rank the stories in your bulletin in order of importance and give each story a weight.

For example, a story which impacts on everyone in the community will usually be stronger than one which only affects a handful of people. An outbreak of Covid-19 in town is more important than one about plans to upgrade a road in two years’ time. A story about a football result will carry less weight than one about deaths arising from a traffic accident.

Try to place connected stories together in the bulletin. For example, it would make sense to place a story about malaria next to one about health facilities.

Once you have ordered the stories, write your headlines. You don’t have to write one for each story, just the most interesting ones. Most bulletins will end with closing headlines as well.

Brief your presenter about the running order, when to expect soundbites and so on. Give them time to read the text through before they go live on air.

If you have a number of bulletins during the day, try to refresh the stories from bulletin to bulletin so they sound different each time. Stories have a shelf-life, but this can be extended by finding new angles, rewriting the introductions and so on.

Keep your listeners in mind at all times. They expect to hear the latest news in one place. It has to be accurate, timely, balanced, and interesting. Following these guidelines will help you to achieve this.

The post Editing radio news bulletins first appeared on Media Helping Media.

A journalist needs to be well-prepared when planning an interview. However, after all your research, try to keep the interview to three questions, because if you haven’t worked out in three what you want to find out from the person you are talking to you, you probably never will.

And try to avoid looking at your notes, but, instead, pay attention to what the person you are interviewing is saying, otherwise you might miss the news story. Here are a few tips for planning and executing an interview.

20 interviewing tips for journalists

1: Never give an interviewee questions in advance. It’s fine to give a general idea about the interview themes, but being too specific may limit what you can ask in the interview. It also risks being overtaken by events and allows the interviewee to rehearse answers.

2: Be on time. There’s nothing worse than keeping someone waiting.

3: Always check that your equipment is working and fully charged before you leave the office.

4: Treat the interviewee with respect whether they are a president or a man or woman in the street. A warm but not over-enthusiastic greeting is a good start.

5: Take control of the location. It’s your interview. You need to choose a place that isn’t too noisy and where there are not too many distractions.

6: You are not meant to be the centre of attention. The interview is not about you. You are there to get the perspective of the interviewee, not give your own.

7: Do the research you need to, but don’t try to cram it all into your questions. Put yourself in the shoes of a member of your audience before you start the interview. If they were here, what would they ask?

8: Ask the most important question first. The more pressed the interviewee is, the less time they will have, and the more likely that they will cut the interview short.

9: The interview is a conversation, it’s not a confrontation. You are not there to make the interviewee look stupid.

10: Try to avoid looking at notes. If you look at your notes, the interviewee may be distracted. And it’s difficult for you to read and listen at the same time.

11: Maintain eye contact at all times. Keep your body language in check. If you nod your head, your subject may take this to mean that you agree with them and assume that there is no need to explain further. You may miss the chance to discover more.  If you shake your head, or recoil with a shocked facial expression, you risk making your subject clam up. You will have shown them that you find their views offensive and so they are likely to stop short of saying even more in the same vein.

12: Try to ask a maximum of three or four questions. An interview is not a fishing expedition. If you can’t get to the essence of what you want the interviewee to say in three or four questions, change the questions.

13: There are six basic questions: what, why, when, how, where and who.

14: Shorter questions are better than longer ones. Never ask more than one question at a time. Combining questions makes it easy for the interviewee to avoid answering one altogether. Be as direct as you can without being rude.

15: Be sure of your facts. There’s nothing worse than being told you are wrong by an interviewee – especially when it’s live.

16: Listen to what the interviewee is saying. They might want to use your interview to announce something important that you were not expecting.

17: If the interviewee is not happy with the way they answered a particular question, don’t give in to appeals for them to do it again – unless there is a factual error in the answer or there is a risk of serious confusion.

18: At the end of the interview, no matter how difficult the interviewee has been, always say thank you

19: Always check the interview has been recorded before the interviewee leaves.

20: When you’re editing, don’t take answers out of context. That’s dishonest.

Related training modules

How to interview politicians

Why would anyone want to talk to a journalist?

Interviewing integrity – scenario

Interview tips for video journalists

The post Preparing for and carrying out an interview first appeared on Media Helping Media.

How do journalists spot a good story?

What are the telltale signs that distinguish fact from fiction? How do you know when you are on the right track? The following are some suggestioins for helping you ensure that you spot real news stories and dig out important facts.

Is it interesting?

This is perhaps the most important criterion. If it’s not interesting, why tell it? Your story should make the viewer, listener or reader stop in their tracks, look up from their breakfast, and want to tell the story to someone else. A good test is if one of your colleagues says “so what?” – if you can’t answer that question, then it might not be quite the story you thought it was.

Did you know about it before?

If you consume news voraciously – and you should – you’ll know if your story is fresh and original. A colleague in your newsroom might be able to help; there is often someone with a fantastic memory for every story that’s ever been done. If they haven’t heard the story before, the chances are it’s new. So don’t be afraid to ask around to find out whether anyone has any more information. You could end up with some important new angles to follow.

Does someone want to keep it quiet?

Once you’ve done all your preparatory research you will be ready to set up the interviews. However, you might find that the main interviewee avoids taking your calls, refuses to take part, or doesn’t answer your questions. If that’s the case it could be that the person at the centre of the story has something to fear or something to hide. Of course that is not proof that the story is true, nor is it proof you are on the right track. There could be many reasons the person wants to remain silent. However, it could indicate that there are issues that you need to investigate further.

How many people will it affect?

It might be the greatest story in the world, but it may affect only one person. That would not rule out telling the story, but the more people your story affects, the more likely it is to be of interest to your audience. And even if it affects only one person, your job is to think through and explain whether it could, or does, have any wider significance. There are usually other people in a similar situation who might benefit from your research and fact-finding.

Is the story difficult to tell?

A good rule of thumb, based on the hundreds of stories I have covered in my time, is that the more difficult the story is to tell, the more likely it is to be a great story. If it were easy to tell, the chances are that someone else will have already done so. This also underlines the importance of not giving up too easily. When covering an important story you might get to the point where you feel like giving up. Don’t. It’s okay to walk away from it for some time, but try to figure out why it’s proving difficult, because that blockage might be the nub of the story.

Does the story make sense?

The more incredible the story and the more removed from reality as you know it, the more likely the story you have is simply not true. That does not mean that such stories are not out there, it just means that you must be extremely sure of your facts before you publish or broadcast. Often the best stories are simply the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle – they make sense of what was already known before.

Are others likely to follow up your story?

If it’s a really great piece of original journalism, your competitors will follow up with their own take on the story. If it’s an outstanding piece of journalism, politicians, campaigners, decision-makers, and those with an interest in the issue, will do something. This is why you should always have your own follow up plan. If, once your story breaks, others follow your lead, then you need to be ahead of the game again. Jotting down a few follow-up angles is always a good idea (see next point).

Will there be related stories?

A really good story will have at least three related stories for you to chase. You have a head start on your competitors, so you should be anticipating where the story will go even before it is published or broadcast. However, when your story breaks, they, too, will be looking for that fresh angle to follow so that they take ownership of the story. You need to be ahead of them. When carrying out your initial fact-finding, write down a story plan with ideas of how it could develop and who the other characters in the story might be. Find those people, talk to them, gather more exclusive material, and develop new angles. Your job is to keep the momentum going.

Will anything change as a result of your story?

If you tell your story, will anything be different? Will other people’s lives improve or get worse? If they improve, that’s a good sign. If they are likely to get worse for many people, think again about whether to publish or broadcast it. This is all part of the public interest test, which can help you decide the strength and validity of your story.

Will you still be able to approach your contacts?

When you tell the story, will you still be able to look your contacts in the eye, and will they still talk to you? A controversial story told well and fairly will earn you respect. A controversial story told badly and unfairly will make it harder for you to work as a journalist. This doesn’t mean you should compromise or water down your material. But it does mean that you need to be fair, honest, objective, impartial and accurate in all you do. See the training modules in our editorial ethics section.

Related training modules

How to create a structured news report

Story development, ensuring all angles are covered

Public interest – scenario

Journalism and the public interest

The post How to spot a news story first appeared on Media Helping Media.

The corporate plan is the most important tool in a media chief executive’s toolbox. Without it the media organisation can become lost and directionless. But with a strong corporate plan, staff and management are brought together, become a positive focus for change, and drive the media business forward. So it’s important to get it right. This is how to do it.

Writing a corporate plan should make running your media operation easier not more complicated, so don’t make the process complex.

The corporate plan should set out the vision for the media organisation, identify the target audience and its information needs, clarify who does what and why they do it, and set clear objectives that are cascaded down through every department and unit and which include every individual.

Corporate plans should be for a specified time period – too short and they don’t allow you to identify core and long-term value; too long and, over time, they become outdated and irrelevant. Five years is a realistic time-frame.

The more comprehensive and inclusive the discussion about the corporate plan is, the more likely it is that it will be realistic and achievable.

However, it’s not possible to include every member of your staff in the drafting process, so make sure the people you invite to discuss and draft the corporate plan are representative of a wide variety of views in your news organisation.

Select a moderator for the process who is a friend of the organisation, but does not have a vested interest in one part of it or another.

A corporate plan sets out your unique differential

Start by doing a realistic market scan so you know who your audiences are, what competition you have, the values your staff and mangers need to demonstrate, and what your unique market differential is.

Then distil all of that into one readily-understood, easy to communicate sentence which you can use as the basis of your corporate plan.

This sentence or phrase is essentially a mission statement, so make sure every word merits a place in it, and that the mission statement covers everything you do or would like to do.

Make sure the mission statement is ambitious enough to be challenging, but realistic enough to be potentially achieved.

An example of such a statement might be “To make appealing content for the people with a well-trained, well managed staff using a variety of funding sources”.

Next, expand each part of the phrase and explain what it means in practice.

In the example above, describe what “making appealing content for the people” actually means in bullet points. Identify targets for each of the bullet points which can be measured with a time frame.

At the end of this process, you will have established what you hope to achieve over the lifetime of your corporate plan and a framework for how to measure your progress against it.

Making your corporate plan relevant and useful

Now you have a corporate plan it needs to be translated into an action plan.

Your senior management team should identify the resources (human, material etc.) they need in order to deliver the corporate plan on a divisional or directorate level.

This document should also contain a more detailed description of the major activity to be carried out in the first year to support the corporate plan, and an outline for the second and third years. Each director now has an individual work plan.

The document should also describe what each of the units plans to do along with measurable targets for each unit and the resources needed. Each unit manager now has an individual work plan.

You now have a divisional plan. Each unit manager now discusses with each member of staff a work plan with measurable targets and objectives for the year ahead. This can also be linked to performance related pay if required.

Each member of staff now has an individual work plan which is directly related to the corporate plan with individual, unit, divisional and corporate objectives

The post Preparing and introducing a media corporate plan first appeared on Media Helping Media.

What to avoid when reporting on conflict

Reporting about conflict and working in a conflict zone is complex. Often the facts are not revealed in a way that offers the level of understanding the situation demands. The journalist needs to be sensitive, have an understanding of history, be aware of cultural issues, and put people before the story.

1: Don’t write in clichés

“The Heart of Darkness” is the title of a book by Joseph Conrad written in the early part of the 20th Century about a trip up the River Congo. It does not need to feature in every story about the Congo and especially not in the headline.

2: Don’t believe everything someone tells you

International NGOs by definition are on the side of the victim, the underdog. They are keen to generate interest in their perspective. They have a story to tell. Often that story is shocking in its own right without the extra tug of emotion, the extra twist given by the NGOs. This especially important when dealing in second-hand accounts of what eye-witnesses said.

3: Don’t hunt for the ‘definitive truth’

The truth is out there, but it’s incredibly hard to find it. Take the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example. It is a huge country – bigger than Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland combined. As a journalist, unless you’ve experienced the situation first hand, you’ll have to rely on what someone else tells you. Do so with caution.

4: Don’t get things out of context

What you witness may be terrible locally, but be sure to offer national, regional, global and historical context to your reporting so that those you are informing have the widest perspective of the significance.

5: Don’t accept information without question

Facts are loaded. A review of the cuttings file on Congo will show you that 5.4 million people have died in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Do you know how this figure was arrived at? Do you know what period the statistic covers? If you don’t, then don’t use it.

6: Don’t forget the human face of suffering

Sexual violence and rape are terrible crimes. When reporting, don’t forget that all the headlines and stories written have a human face.

7: Don’t be sloppy with words

Use language with care. Genocide is a specific legal term with a particular meaning. It does not automatically follow that, because a large number of people have been killed, it’s genocide.

8: Don’t be led by another’s agenda

It’s all about timing. Remember that pressure groups will often release information to coincide with significant events in the political calendar. For example, UN Security Council debates are often previewed by NGO’s making demands calling for action. As a journalist, you set the agenda – don’t have it set for you.

9: Don’t ignore the local pressures

Congolese journalists work in a completely different political environment than the one you are lucky to work in. They face censorship (or self-censorship), harassment, intimidation and murder threats. They are often not able to report what they would like to.

10: Don’t ignore history

History repeats itself. Journalism doesn’t have to. Journalism should not be an accumulation of clichés ending with the latest addition to the mix. Think originally, think laterally. Find stories which tell the untold facts and which get beyond the clichés.

The post What to avoid when reporting conflict first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Emily Shawcross is an award winning blogger living and working on an island state in the Caribbean.

She is something of a maverick by nature but has uncovered some really good stories on corrupt practices involving mining companies and politicians.

Eventually this leads to an award from the United Nations as anti-corruption journalist of the year.

Islands TV recruits Emily to be the main presenter on its evening business programme, Drive For Money.

Emily is excited by the new job and is looking forward to bringing her award-winning investigative journalistic approach to the programme

However, Islands TV signs a secret contract with the Minister For Industry And Development, John Jackson, which, for the equivalent of $250,000 USD, guarantees him at least 10 appearances on the programme during a 20-week run.

Emily finds out about the contract, but has only just joined Islands TV, and is earning more in a month than she did in a year as a blogger. Should Emily:

1. Say nothing but strive to ask difficult questions to balance out any bias
2. Raise her concerns with the producer of the programme and Islands TV management and hope that they will at least acknowledge that any interview is paid for
3. Resign immediately and say nothing about why
4. Resign immediately and leak the story to Island TV’s main competitor, Sunshine Watch

What would you do?

Suggested action

In the real example of this fictional scenario the reporter resigned but said nothing. However tough the interview might be, the reputational risk to Emily’s name as a journalist is more important than any other consideration.

Raising the concerns with the station management was pointless, since corruption works two ways. Accepting the money is as corrupt as taking it. Leaking the story would have broken the terms of Emily’s contract of employment.

The post Interviewing integrity – scenario first appeared on Media Helping Media.

This training module was written for journalism students in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. They were studying broadcast journalism, and in particular creating news features for radio. Many of those attending the course had no previous journalism experience or training.

How to make great TV and radio packages

Structure, timing, and letting the interview breathe are all essential elements for ensuring a general TV or radio news package works.

These are the packages where you introduce the audience to an issue and explore multiple elements of the story through interviewing different people.

It’s also important not to cram too much into an item, perhaps just three points.

And try to avoid noddies (shots where you, the interviewer, nod and which are edited in later) and walking shots for TV, they are overused and boring.

Try to think of original shots and sounds that will capture the attention of the audience.

1: Clarity

Before you start, have a clear idea of how long your finished item is likely to be and roughly how much footage of your interviewees you are likely to use.

2: Format

Map out a structure for the piece and try to work out a likely order for the interview clips and which points they will address.

3: Main points

Try to limit yourself to three main points for one item.

4: Use of interviewees

Make sure each of these three points is addressed by a different interviewee.

5: Review

Listen or watch the interview in full from start to finish at least once in order to ensure you haven’t missed anything. Take notes of the time on the recording of each potential interview clip, the words that begin the clip and the words that end it.

6: Coherence

When you have repeated the process for all the interviews in your piece, return to the structure you have mapped out and see if it is still coherent or if the order of interviewees needs to change.

7: Strength

Try to put the strongest interview near the start of the piece.

8: Selection

When you are selecting interview clips, choose ones which give opinion over ones which relay only information; information which is not controversial can easily be summarised by you in your linking commentary.

9: Pace

Try to leave a pause at the start and end of each clip. Life isn’t breathless; neither should a radio or television package be.

10: Clichés

In television avoid using noddies and walking shots to illustrate your material. They are the mind-numbingly boring to look at and do not make best use of the medium.

11: Editing

Avoid cutting excessively from the answer (such as taking one part of three seconds from the start of an answer, three seconds from the middle, and five from the end). This sounds and looks unnatural, misrepresents the interviewee, and is excessively difficult to process for television interviews.

12: Context

Never take an answer from one question and use it in response to another. This is gross misrepresentation.

13: Commentary

When you are writing commentary to link the clips together, try to avoid using the same words at the end of your text as the interviewee says in the beginning of the clip ie. : John Smith said he was delighted.. [John Smith] “I am delighted …”

14: Summaries

In TV and radio journalism, your package may often be mentioned in a news bulletin in the form of a clip before its broadcast slot. When writing the introduction for that clip, avoid summarising everything that is going to feature in the clip.

15: Positioning

In television reports, try to stick to the convention of alternate interviewees being on opposite sides of the screen. (First interviewee looking left to right, second right to left, third left to right etc.)

16: Voices

Try to avoid running two clips back to back without a commentary in between. Where this is unavoidable, for example in the case of vox pops, try to alternate between male and female voices. The reason for this is to avoid confusion.

17: Titles

Always make sure that you have the correct title for your interviewee and the correct spelling of their name. This is particularly important for TV captions. If they have a particularly long job title, agree a shortened version before you return from the interview.

18: Ending

Try to avoid ending a report with a clip of one of the interviewees. In TV this looks untidy. In radio, it complicates life for the studio presenter. It also gives one side or another of an argument the last word.

19: Answers

If you are editing an interview as a stand-alone item, try to put as much of the non-controversial information in the intro or lead-in to the item, and always make sure the intro ends with a question and the piece begins with an answer to that question.

20: Options

For stand-alone interviews, always give an option of an early ending, with a shorter duration and the right out-words. This will help the production team in case more urgent news breaks or they need to cut back your item.

Related training module

Preparing for and carrying out an interview

The post How to create a broadcast news package first appeared on Media Helping Media.