10 Steps to Writing a Story – Broadcast Journalism

1. Find a Topic.
- Relates to your audience based on the criteria of newsworthiness
- Prominence
- Heartwarming Story
2. Find an angle.
- Narrow Down Story
- One part of the topic
- Football > Training
3. Collect Data.
- How
- What
- Where/When
4. Conduct the Interviews.
- Interview Three People
- Ask them Three Questions
- Ask three experts on your angle
5. Shoot your reporter stand-up.
- Appears in the middle of the story
-Gives a transition piece
-Should stay relevant with your story.
6. Organize your Soundbites.
- Ask open ended questions
- No yes/no questions
- Piece of audio that can stand by itself
7. Write the transitions in your story.
- Your voice is the transition
- Strong and Simple words
- Write everything around the interviews
8. Write the introduction and conclusion of your story.
- Write the middle first
- Save your best soundbites at the end
- Write a powerful beginning and end
- Use a tagline (Ex. Reporting for _______, I am ______ ______)
9. Write the anchor ins and outs (if necessary).
- Anchors must connect to those who write the story
- No repetition
- Easy to understand
10. Collect B-Roll to add to your story (throughout steps 4-9)
- Video Clips
- Match Voice-Overs
- Interviews

*Steps 4-8 in your story are called the A-Roll.