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
- 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’.
- Radio news doesn’t go into the same level of detail. A broadcast journalist must tell the complete story in fewer words.
- 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.
- Radio is often live, so once the reporter’s said it, there’s no going back. Copy must be right first time.
- Deadlines are much sooner and more frequent.
- Radio reports are written in the present tense. The word ‘yesterday; is a banned word in many newsrooms
See our creative radio journalism course