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The Newsroom: The heart of the news factory

The Newsroom is the hub where the bulk of their news is generated and stories written to be

embedded in the bulletins and lifted by the language services who then translate them and

insert them into their bulletins. The newsroom is a close knit operation under one roof. In the

centre sits what is called the ‘central core’ which writes the headlines and lead stories and

behind them sit the bulletins editors who write and produce the hourly bulletins and

summaries. The producers keep the stories up-to-date by staying in touch with the newsroom

(from the studio) throughout the broadcast to ensure that any story that breaks while they’re

´on air´ features in the output.

Each of the regional news desks work on stories within a designated geographical precinct

and have a reporter with expertise on that particular region. They are dotted along one side of

the room. Along the other side of the room sit the teams responsible for transcribing

despatches or stories sent in by correspondents overseas and the gatekeepers who monitor

what’s coming in on the wires and make selections. The newsroom also houses a business

desk with its own team of reporters.

The newsroom can perhaps be envisaged as the nucleus of the organization which is tied to

the language service by the threads of bulletins and headlines and feeds the reporters on its

programs with the facts - through ENPS- correspondent’s reports and the business news. The

Word today is just one of the mouths being fed by the newsroom, but does not subsist solely

on that.

News Broadcasts

The newsroom’s output takes the shape of five-minute bulletins on the hour and two-minute

summaries at half past the hour. It also produces a half hour news programme called World

Briefing several times a day which is a combination of copy stories written by the reporters in

the news room, interview clips with people who are either in the story or who can provide an

insight because of their expertise so as to add character to the story, correspondents reports to

add a more authentic feel to the story by telling it from where the action is and illustrated

features that keep listeners engaged.

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Who´s Listening?

188 million radio listeners around the world tune in to the BBC World service each week1. to

listen to its output across its 32 language services. Listeners spend about 5 hours a week

listening to the World service. The BBC World service can be heard by 1,438,000 over 15s

worldwide who tune in for at least 15 minutes a day2. It is able to do this through partnerships

with 2000 radio stations around the globe. On shortwave, satellite, AM and FM channels, on

their mobile phones and handheld devices3.the world spends 6,999 hours a week with the

BBC World service.4

1.http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/07_july/14/world_service.shtml

2. http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

3.http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/07_july/14/world_service.shtml

4. http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php

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The World Today

The World Today is one of the BBC World service’s main news and current affairs programs

that goes out in three chunks, (WT1, WT2, WT3) between midnight and 6am GMT. It’s a

breakfast programme that is served to the World on weekday mornings but they are re-

versioned for the web and uploaded as podcasts onto the website making it possible to listen

to them through the day and on the weekends.

News style: The news is told through the voices of the people in the story or close enough to

provide insight, people with expert understanding of the central issues, authoritative figures

as well as the common man and using correspondents despatches and 2 ways. Unlike many

other programmes that tend to lay emphasis on figureheads the World Today derives colour

from the voices of ordinary people who often don’t get heard in the shadow of the big fish.

It is the main presenter led programme wherein

the presenters either do interviews and two ways

live on the programme or prerecord them before.

Each of the programmes is co presented.

The Bulletins, Summaries and Business news are read in the studio by newsreaders from the

newsroom and a reporter from the Business Desk.

The sport is presented live on the program from the sports desk at TV Centre in White city

How they work: Presenter A is usually one of the producers who have recently begun

presenting. The roles of Duty Editor and Reporters, Producers and Presenter A are undertaken

by the team in rotation.

World Today 1 is presented by presenter A and B, World Today 2 by presenter B and C and World Today by presenter C and D, So there is a sense of continuity between the programmes

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Stringing the Pearls of wisdom....

@ The World Today

Working as part of the team on the World Today was the

most enjoyable and ‘lesson learning’ part of my experience

at the BBC World service where I spent most of my time

but I feel it was a fairly steep learning curve. One of the

editors Sheila Lal, said “you were thrown in at the deep

end”. In retrospect I really did feel the splash of cold water

that brought me out of the idyllic paradigm that a

presenter’s job is less taxing than a reporter. I’ve learnt a lot

about a presenter’s job simply by watching. Not only to

extrapolate the information the audience would like to hear

from interviewees but also to steer the discussion back on

track when it digresses is the challenge.

That was just one of the many things I learnt, which are

too many to pen down but here are some that really stood

out for me.

Lesson 1 # There is no Panic button

On my last day the sports reporter got cut off not once but

twice during the programme till they finally got it on the

third time but the Presenters held the programme together

injecting humour into the situation when they announced

the sport and something else came on in spite of the fact

that they were seething. It was the quick wit that I think

prevented the programme from taking a nose dive,

reiterating the importance of being calm and having your

wits about you when you’re presenting.

In the Newsroom In the newsroom I trailed the East Asia desk where I got involved with researching stories in China and writing copy. As a result I became familiar with the political climate and the reliable news sources such as the China Daily. I learnt that it won’t be derogatory to call someone a communist in China and that it is essential to refer to at least two reliable sources when writing copy for a story abroad, which is what, is meant by ´double sourced´. The China Daily is one such source they use when working on stories in China. In the studio for World Briefing with the Studio Manger i.e. The producer, I learnt that ‘greening’ means that an item in the bulletin or programme has been checked and can be read by the news reader and if it’s still unchecked, the newsreader won’t read it and this sometimes caused panic during the programme if the news reader was nearing a story that was important and had not been ‘greened’ making me realise how much teamwork goes into news broadcasting.

I learnt that presenting can be challenging. I use the following example to illustrate that lesson. Situation: Muck hits the wind screen and the car goes off road Self: Where’s the Panic Button? Self: Oh right, there isn’t one.

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Lesson 3 # Ask for Protocol

Technically speaking...........

While working on a piece about prisoner repatriation wherein an interview had to be set up

with someone in Canada and someone in LA I learnt not only about the logistics of setting up

interviews in external studios but also the technical aspects that are crucial for radio in order

to ensure that the interview is received in quality such as protocol configuration used by

different studios for their phone in lines which need to be compatible with the studio they are

speaking to.

Lesson 4 # News is a volatile substance

I realised that the angle of a story can change rapidly if a story is still unfolding when after a

whole day of struggling I finally found someone to give us a picture of what was happening

in Maiduguri in Nigeria where there was rioting and our reporter could not get there but by

the time it was time to get the programme on air the extremist leader who was alleged to have

played a key role in the violence was caught which completely diverted the focus making that

interview and angle no longer relevant.

Lesson 5# When in doubt prerecord

It was while doing a story about the first woman to graduate with a degree in stand up

comedy that I learned this. When we got her into the studio we had not expected the

interview to be editorially challenged but she ended up making jokes that were unsuitable for

broadcasting. Since it was pre-recorded we could salvage the interview and bring it to a

smooth end which I feel might not have happened if it was live because she might have had

to be taken off the air midway and there piece may not have ended neatly .

The presenter, Pascal Harter described it as “filth.” But she removed the jokes by inserting a

ripping sound effect ‘rrrrippp’ and saying that the jokes were unsuitable for broadcasting but

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really made us laugh and then telling listeners where the comedian was doing her next gig,

which I thought, was a creative way of salvaging the humour. Also there were some things

that turned out to be fairly dry which would have eaten into airtime and not made the story as

interesting for the listener.

Lesson 6# Write in Brief

It became evident how important writing briefs is and how crucial it is to be as concise and

clear as possible. Writing briefs means literally telling the story to the presenter in brief in the

Brief. Writing briefs for the presenter is about simplifying the story as much as possible. A

presenter needs to tell the story to an audience but that can’t be done properly unless they

understand the story which is where the difference becomes apparent between the reporter

who researches and presenter who presents. The reporter must understand the story and then

dissect it and give the presenter the key information in the most simplistic and uncomplicated

manner. For a complex story I’ve it could take several hours to fully get to grips with it

realised making it clear how important it is to write that brief.

Summary.....

I would say that the experience of training at the BBC World service was enriching in terms

of both the breadth of what I learnt and the depth. I learnt about shortcomings in my own

journalistic practice as well as what different roles involve and how they all work together to

churn out well structured programmes effectively. I broadened the spectrum of my knowledge

of current affairs and level of understanding on specific topics. I was able to sharpen my

existing journalistic skills and I learnt how to translate what I knew into more complex pieces

of radio, like the ‘on air’ Iraq Inquiry discussion that I set up for the programme ahead of

the announcement that was well received by the team.

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