« Why Women Don't Sleep Naked | Main | Be Consistent »
Understanding The News
Newscasters have tag lines for everything. Terms like 'Breaking News', 'Team Coverage' and 'This just in...' are all used regulary to lead us past each commercial break and into the next segment. These tag lines meant something in the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. Today, this is watered down codes for, "please don't turn the channel, we need to eat." Lost Remote did a nice breakdown of these terms to help us decipher the nightly news. For example:
"We have a crew on the way."
OLD: We have a crew on the way.
NEW: We just saw the story on the other channel and we're calling in our truck guy from his day off.
"We have new details..."
OLD: We have found out additional facts that are new and pertinent to your understanding of this complex story.
NEW: We got nothin', but we're rewriting the copy in the present tense.
Read the guide to new newswriting
Posted by Jake at October 27, 2005 08:36 PM