New record high spent on ‘Singles Day’ in China

According to this NPR news package by Laura Sullivan Chinese shoppers set a record high for spending on what they call Singles Day. Singles Day is celebrated on Nov 11^th in China and is a day where single men and women are encouraged to go by gifts for themselves. This year more than $9 million dollars was spent on goods.

This package consists of both a news article and recording. The news article is not a script of the recording despite the similar tone they both have. Both the article and the recording have a conversational tone. The article goes into more detail about Singles Day, its history and how much was bought this year. The recording uses many of the same phrases from the article but cuts out the longer more complicated words and unnecessary detail while adding flair with voice inflections, sound bites and music. The recording uses a sound bite from one of the stores on Singles Day and adds music to the end when Sullivan talks about Veterans Day. The recording also uses a sound bite of the quote by Alexander Chernev that is written in the story. Everyone spoke in a friendly, smooth tone which made it easy for the listener to follow the story.

Class clown?

In this shocking video, Charlotte’s WCNC reports a 14-year-old Rowan County Middle School student taken into custody after dressing in a clown mask and raising a butcher knife in the school cafeteria.

The video is accompanied by an article that follows the story and acts as a script. It highlights the direct quotations and general format of the story and follows along with the video. But the written lede in the article is much different than that of the story. The first sentence of the article is extremely informative and cuts straight to the point. Right away it gives the age of the student, the name of the school, the type of knife used, the location of the event, the day and time frame, and information that the student had been taken into custody. Whenever listening to the story in the video, the anchor approaches the lede in a completely different way. It is much more dramatic using action words like fought and life in danger. The lede in the video also emphasizes the importance of the responding police officer who risked his life so that students could escape safely. This takes on an entirely different point of view than the article even though both are about the same crime.

Direct quotes are emphasized in videos very differently than in articles. This video uses direct quotes from the police officer who was at the scene of the crime by showing him on the screen actually answering questions about the crime. The producers of the video did not choose to overlay written blocked quotes to the video.

There are also voiceovers in the video with b-roll playing beneath them. When reporter, Ben Thompson, details the crime images pop up on the screen. The writing directly matches the images on the screen. Whenever Thompson mentions the knives and mask a picture appears from the scene of the two items. Thompson also mentions the student brought the knife in a backpack at which point the backpack and the knife fill the frame. A sound bite is added when the police officer speaks about the crime.

The general run down of this package follows the common form for television news stories. Here is a quick breakdown:

1. Anchor on camera
2. Tossed to Reporter live at the scene
3. Reporter voiceover (B-roll: knives, mask, sheriff, schoolyard, school building)
4. Interview of responding police officer
5. Reporter live at the scene
6. Anchor on camera

Starbucks no longer allowing employees to wear engagement rings

This video package from CNN explores a new rule at Starbucks that is angering many employees and customers. For food safety reasons, employees are no longer allowed to wear engagement rings or any type of ‘bling’ with stones.

The lede is very different from the typical news story lede. It does not immediately or directly say what the story is about, and it uses compelling language and fun words such as ‘bling.’

Following the lede is a string of soundbite opinions from various customers on the street, right outside of a Starbucks. These soundbites are a clever way to get direct quotes and opinions. Later on in the video, there are more direct quotes in the form of tweets. Pictures of the tweets are shown on screen as the journalist voice-over reads what they say. The video also ends with more soundbite opinions.

The real news, what the story is actually about, came after the first few soundbites. From there, the journalist uses a voiceover over shots of Starbucks locations and people walking in and out. After she begins telling the real story, it seems to take the form of inverted pyramid. The most important news is first and it is followed with details. However, The language is still a little more casual, it is not directly like a straight news story.

Man injured by explosion in Fawn Township, Pa.

On WTAE, Pittsburgh’s Action News, a story was broadcasted about a man who was injured in an explosion in Allegheny County. The sole victim has serious wounds to his face and upper body. The explosion was from a 55-gallon drum near the garage of the Graff Trucking building.

Script Analysis

This live package is complete with an anchor, reporter, sound bite and voice-over. The package begins with an anchor intro that uses the strong adjective, “frightening,” to grab attention. The intro is scripted and read off a prompter, yet it sounds very conversational.

Kelly Brennan, the reporter at the scene of the accident, is introduced by the anchor. She states the fact of what happened in a live shot, including the current status on the injured man and the investigation. This poses as the nut graf of the story. She follows that with a voice-over of footage from the scene of the accident. She narrates when and where it happened, quoting the police chief. Brennan is reading off a script, but her dialect is conversational.

In the written script the language is very simple, making it easy to follow the story. The written script is followed and moves along with the video during voice-overs. For example, when Brennan says, “This is where county homicide and the country fire marshal begin to investigate,” the video pans to the scene of the accident where police are already starting to investigate around the blocked off area.