TV Archive

The Importance Of Being Focused

Posted April 16, 2019 by Bill Wheelhouse

Minneapolis TV Reporter Boyd Huppert emphasized that importance of knowing the focus of your story, when speaking to the Illinois News Broadcasters Association over the weekend.

It motivated me to focus on FOCUS in future Tips of the Week.

Huppert’s working definition of focus is “Character,  More  

Newswriting: The Dreaded Passive Voice

Posted November 13, 2018 by Bill Wheelhouse

Thanks to Ken Keller.  A good chunk of this article came from an INBA Tune In back in the 1990’s (based on the original article mentioning Governor Jim Edgar.)

With Mr. Keller writing about passive voice 20 years ago, we know this is a perennial problem in broadcast and now web writing.   More  

How To Pitch Political Stories

Posted June 18, 2018 by Bill Wheelhouse

Tim Wieland of KCNC in Denver has some guidelines if you are a reporter who REALLY wants to report political stories in your market.

He has these five tips on pitching political stories:

 

  1. Know how the story directly relates to your audience.

    2.  More  

It’s Only Boring If You Make It Boring

Posted June 11, 2018 by Bill Wheelhouse

Taking some extra time when writing can allow you to take what you considered throw away b-roll to actually help tell and improve your story.

At his recent appearance at IBA’s convention in Normal, Poynter Institute’s Al Tompkins was helping reporters make their writing more interesting.  Al says you “explain the video,  More