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Now is the time to purge some bad habits in TV newsrooms. In my last column, I mentioned the importance of using editorial meetings to plan better. Another challenge many newsrooms face is improving ratings, with little to no research for support. There is a beneficial technique that can be implemented with current staffing with just a bit of discipline: writing to video.
Sound too simple? Watch a local newscast. We as an industry must admit that most of the time, the video is an afterthought for most stories — especially voiceovers. How many times a day are editors asked to find file video? How many times are video sequences just duped over to the next newscast, and no one looks at what the video actually shows? In most newsrooms, these bad habits are the norm.
The viewer gets confused if the script and video do not match, and it’s a lost opportunity to connect. When I work with producers and executive producers, we discuss ways to improve writing stories so that the video is a key part of relaying information. This means knowing exactly what the video shows before writing the script and basing the story on what you can show when explaining.
There are several benefits to this. Most people retain information better if more than one of their senses is engaged. So, seeing and hearing the story helps. But just putting up video that doesn’t make sense with the words is not true to the two-sense rule. There must be