THE
PROBLEMS
Drive-by
Reporting -- Everything
is observed from a distance.
• The
story may be accurate, but it is superficial. The viewer
cannot care about the story if he or she has been given
no reason to.
Babbling
Bites -- Too much of the story consists of sound
bites strung together.
• Most reporters can relate the facts more succinctly
than the interviewee, but the interviewee may be a fine
punctuation mark to the writer's well-crafted sentence.
Heresalottastuff
-- Facts
are abundant. Context, vision, voice, and point of view
are absent.
• The writer has not crafted a story with a heart.
It is as impressive as reading the phone book out loud.
The
Impersonal Touch -- People are nothing more than
undeveloped supers.
• Many people are jammed into a story. None of
them are given the chance to be known and heard clearly,
in context.
Right
Brain/Left Brain Strain -- The pictures and words
fight one another.
• The right brain processes visual elements;
the left brain processes verbal elements. When pictures
and words don't match, pictures win, and words lose.
Projected
Content -- The writer, knowing all the detail
of the story, thinks the information is in the copy
when it isn't.
• The writer has not developed the ability to clear
his or her mind and read the story as a viewer would.
Developing this skill is critical for writers and editors.
Logorrhea
-- Using too many words, especially adjectives and
even worse -- adjectives that are superlatives.
• Lengthy sentences, needlessly compound, or complex.
Fat paragraphs that fail to hold hands with one another.
Using big words like logorrhea when little words will
do.
TO
AVOID THESE PROBLEMS
