Editing and Rewriting News

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Chapter 8

• Editing and Rewriting News

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• Electronic news media strive for uniqueness.
  Therefore, they rewrite wire copy.
• News Services
• Associated Press most common.
• Most news organizations want to edit so stories
  do not sound like competition.
• Copy should be in the style and voice of
  newscaster or newscast.
• Check for misspellings, excessive modifers, too
  much attribution.

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• Editing Wire Copy
• Editing minor changes to improve flow, reduce
  wordiness (example, p. 172).
• With computerized systems, copy is rarely read
  from hard (paper) copies, so crossing out is not
  an option.
• Rewriting Wire Copy
• Rewriting major changes. Using essential facts,
  but restructuring the story.

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• Localizing Wire Copy
• Many national stories can be localized by
  interviewing a local authority.
• References to Texas following a city name
  generally should be eliminated. Why?
• Rural East Texas town of Emory Should we
  change this, if broadcasting in Commerce?

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• Electronic news copy should be written as if
  spoken to another person, conversationally.
• People listening in their homes or cars.
• Is this the way Id explain story to a friend?
• Saving Time
• Copy must be edited to fit into a given amount of
  time. Often, important facts must be cut. What is
  essential?

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• Converting TV scripts to the Web
• (see p. 176)
• Combine copy
• Remove extraneous
• Fix capitalization
• Add direct quotes
• Form complete sentences
• Remove references to video
• Beef up the story
• Bring it all together
• Add interactivity