TV News Glossary
Weather is the main story of the day today, and since Josh covers that pretty well on his blog, I'm really at a bit of a loss as to exactly what I'm going to blog about. I guess I'll veer from my normal course of action to talk a little about the inner workings of this business. Since we do talk shop here from time to time, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to give you a quick lesson on what some of the terms we use on a daily basis are. So what follows is a simple glossary of television news terms. We'll link to this so you can reference it from time to time if you don't understand something we're talking about.
TV News Glossary
Reader - a story that is read by an anchor without video.
VO - A story, read by an anchor, with video shown over the anchor's voice.
SOT or Sound Byte (or Byte) - A short clip of an interview. Usually between 8-15 seconds long.
VO/SOT or VOSB or VOB - a story that includes an anchor reading with vo over his voice, and includes a sound byte.
Package - A story voiced by a reporter, with that reporter's voice on tape, including both video and sound bytes.
Rundown - The order and timing of a newscast, indicating which stories, segments and commercials will run when, and how long they will run.
Live Shot - A story by a reporter, done live, not on tape, from a different location than the studio.
Tease - A preview of a story, that runs, most of the time just before a commercial.
Cold Open - Beginning a show or a segment with vo and or a sound byte.
Toss - When on anchor or reporter turns over a portion of the show to another anchor or reporter.
Assignment Sheet - The list of stories to be covered for the day.
Wire - Stories sent to different news outlets from around the state and country, via computer.
OTS - Over the shoulder graphic, usually seen over one of the anchor's shoulders as he reads the story. Also called a box.
Lower third graphic - Graphic shown on the bottom of the screen, usually identifying a person or place.
Full Screen Graphic - Graphic taking up the full screen, usually giving information related to the story being told.
Sweeps - Four months out of the year, February, May, July, and November, Neilson surveys viewers in our area to find out who is watching what.
Okay, that's a start. We'll update this as more terms come to mind. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about any of the things we do, or about what any of these things mean, feel free to leave a message. Or if there are any other things you'd like to know about how the news business works, you can feel free to leave a message about that too. Have a great day.
TV News Glossary
Reader - a story that is read by an anchor without video.
VO - A story, read by an anchor, with video shown over the anchor's voice.
SOT or Sound Byte (or Byte) - A short clip of an interview. Usually between 8-15 seconds long.
VO/SOT or VOSB or VOB - a story that includes an anchor reading with vo over his voice, and includes a sound byte.
Package - A story voiced by a reporter, with that reporter's voice on tape, including both video and sound bytes.
Rundown - The order and timing of a newscast, indicating which stories, segments and commercials will run when, and how long they will run.
Live Shot - A story by a reporter, done live, not on tape, from a different location than the studio.
Tease - A preview of a story, that runs, most of the time just before a commercial.
Cold Open - Beginning a show or a segment with vo and or a sound byte.
Toss - When on anchor or reporter turns over a portion of the show to another anchor or reporter.
Assignment Sheet - The list of stories to be covered for the day.
Wire - Stories sent to different news outlets from around the state and country, via computer.
OTS - Over the shoulder graphic, usually seen over one of the anchor's shoulders as he reads the story. Also called a box.
Lower third graphic - Graphic shown on the bottom of the screen, usually identifying a person or place.
Full Screen Graphic - Graphic taking up the full screen, usually giving information related to the story being told.
Sweeps - Four months out of the year, February, May, July, and November, Neilson surveys viewers in our area to find out who is watching what.
Okay, that's a start. We'll update this as more terms come to mind. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about any of the things we do, or about what any of these things mean, feel free to leave a message. Or if there are any other things you'd like to know about how the news business works, you can feel free to leave a message about that too. Have a great day.
posted by Wade Phillips at 5:40 PM
2 Comments:
I see Tom Daniels and John Johnson spend 30-60 minutes a day in front of the camera and never do their own news stories....what do they do the rest of the day
Tom is the producer of the 6 and 10 o'clock news. That means he decides which stories go where. It takes up the bulk of his day.
John is the news director. He's our boss. His day is filled with the usual management duties, deciding who covers what, what the overall look of our news will be like, hiring, budgets, etc.
Hope that helps. Trust me, they both stay busy daily.
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