Creating a news bulletin requires journalistic skills – the ability to write clear and concisely, but also editing skills – selecting, checking and prioritising stories. There are a few practical techniques which can make the process easier and more effective.
When it comes to selecting and ranking stories for your bulletin, always consider what will interest your listeners the most. Your audience may not be interested in hearing three minutes of political stories about taxation, health insurance and internal party squabbles. However, a light story on a street fight or the hunt for a thief could be just what they need to keep them listening.
The lead story is the one which most people will remember, so it is important to pay special attention to it. It should be short, well written and exciting. A boring story for the lead will lose a listener early on and may cause them to switch off. The lead story should have a punchy headline which conveys the main idea, and a strong opening grab. Grabs should be short (between 20 and 40 seconds), clear and well-edited. Grabs in languages other than your own should be overdubbed unless they can be heard clearly – fading down the original voice until it is only just audible, then playing a translation over it.
A news bulletin can be made more interesting and appealing to listeners by running the same story in different formats – for example, a text report and a radio clip. This can help listeners to understand the story better, and also gives them a chance to hear the information in their own words, which can be more powerful than reading it on air.