Writers have to stick to different rules when they’re writing radio reports. These are the main differences that we emphasise in our Radio journalism course

  1. Radio stories don’t contain direct quotes. The reporter will say: Mr Jones said he was angry, rather than Mr Jones said: ‘I am angry’.
  2. Radio news doesn’t go into the same level of detail. A broadcast journalist must tell the complete story in fewer words.
  3. The radio audience cannot ‘rewind’, so the copy must be easy to understand. This is in contrast to newspaper reader, who can re-read an article to ascertain its meaning.
  4. Radio is often live, so once the reporter’s said it, there’s no going back. Copy must be right first time.
  5. Deadlines are much sooner and more frequent.
  6. Radio reports are written in the present tense. The word ‘yesterday; is a banned word in many newsrooms

See our creative radio journalism course