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  • What is Broadcast News?

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    • This week we look at an overview of broadcast journalism to understand news that is only heard and seen but not read.

      The role of broadcast has changed dramatically in recent years, as audiences get their news in different ways, not just through traditional means such as print, radio and live TV, but through streaming video and audio, through social media, and via smartphones and tablets. This means that journalists have had to change the ways they work, to provide audio and video for their stories. And at the heart of broadcast news is a story told through sound and pictures.

      Listen

      In Alysen's "The Electronic Reporter : Broadcast Journalism in Australia" on page 7  there is a good timeline of the rich history of radio in this country. Wireless radio became available at the start of last century, but the first broadcast occurred in the early 1920s. The ABC and commercial radio began in the 30s, community radio only began in the 70s. 

      Don't forget the power of radio. Orson Welles' War of the Worlds is a testament to that. In 1938 he terrified listeners by interrupting a music concert with a news flash, but it was just a fictional account of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Yet audiences thought it was a real news event that was occurring in real time.

      Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938

      (57 minutes but you can just listen to the beginning to get an idea of what listeners heard).


      Eyewitness Account of the Hindenburg (1:25 minutes)

      In contrast to the War of the Worlds radio coverage, the Hindenburg disaster in 1938 was very real. An American reporter was sent to record the routine arrival of the blimp and send the disk back to his news network for transcribing. Instead, Herb Morrison's emotional coverage of the event was broadcast the next day. 

      Source: Pathgrams (Video), W. R. (Sound). (1937). Hindenburg Disaster With Sound (Herb Morrison, WLS Radio) (Standard 4:3). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/SF145

      Watch

      In this video, Lachlan Parker takes a brief look at the history of Broadcast in Australia, to see how we got to where we are today. We also look at some of the fundamental news values that apply to all news writing. (3:53 minutes)



    • File icon
      1.1 - Broadcast history and principles slides File

    • Read

      Please read pages 24-25 of "Sources of News in Alysen. In this section, the author discusses news values which reporters use to determine whether a story is newsworthy or not. These are then discussed in detail and each category clarified. By the end of this reading, you should have a clearer understanding of news values and what they mean. 

      Alysen, B. (2012). The electronic reporter broadcast journalism in Australia / Barbara Alysen. (3rd ed.). UNSW Press. pp.24-25

      A large international study (Hanitzsch et al, 2011) began mapping journalism cultures across 18 countries, including Australia. As a result, research conducted by Hanusch (2016), outlines the major findings in this country. It’s based on the most recent comprehensive survey of Australian journalists. This will give you a snapshot of where they work, levels of education and areas of expertise and their views on the transformative changes in the industry over the past few years.

      Hanusch, F., & Hanitzsch, T. (2016). Journalists in Australia. https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.29697


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