http://www.newscript.com/glossary.html bg image(images/background5.jpg) newscript.com online radio journalism tutorial home basics styles judgment newsroom glossary links comments Glossary --------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some common terms in radio journalism used throughout the Newswriting for Radio website and their definitions: actuality recorded segment of a newsmaker speaking, generally lasting from 10 to 20 seconds; this is what people outside of radio journalism often call a "sound bite" clock schedule of a broadcast hour, with precise time in minutes and seconds allotted for the various programming segments; for example, a clock might begin "00:00-01:30 -- news," "01:30-02:30 -- spots," and so forth; often represented as a pie chart resembling an analog clock cut tape containing the recording of a voicer, wrap, actuality or nat sound; networks feed cuts to affiliates via satellite hourly network newscast beginning at the top of the hour; the cast generally contains a commercial break at two and a half or three minutes past the hour and resumes a minute or a minute and a half later; most hourlies conclude at five minutes past the hour IQ "in cue" -- the first words recorded on a cut lead first sentence of a news story, which should concisely reveal the story's basic events and provide an introduction to the details given in the rest of the story live shot report introduced by an anchor that has not been recorded but is read live by another journalist, often at a news scene lockout final words of a report spoken by a journalist in which the journalist's name and station call letters or frequency are given, such as "Corrie Carpenter, 990 News"; often a location is given as well: "In Middleville, Corrie Carpenter, 990 News" MOS abbreviation for "Man On the Street" interviews; that is, interviews of passers-by chosen at random in a public place and asked their opinions of events or people in the news nat or natural or raw sound "raw sound" is recorded sound that is not of a newsmaker speaking, such as the sound of an airplane landing or a marching band playing or a crowd cheering; sometimes known as "natural sound" or "nat sound," especially when the source of the sound is from nature, such as frogs croaking or geese honking OQ "out cue" -- the last words recorded on a cut reader script of a news story in which no actualities are to be played; this script is read live on the air by the anchor; the recording of a reader by a reporter is called a "voicer" script written-out version of a news story, the text of which is read on the air; a newscast is made up of a collection of scripts read by an anchor slug title of a script; used for reference purposes; wire-service stories are each given one sounder recorded tune used to introduce segments of the broadcast, such as at the beginning of a traffic report or sports; the networks use sounders at the beginning of the hourlies spot recorded commercial advertisement tease brief phrase spoken by the anchor immediately before playing a spot or going to traffic (or some other interruption of the newscast) to tell the listener about a story coming up later; the tease should intrigue the listener without either misrepresenting the story or revealing it entirely voicer recorded report containing only the journalist's voice -- there is no actuality; can be understood as a recorded reader wrap recorded report in which a journalist's voice occurs at the beginning and end, and an actuality is played in between; the report is "wrapped around" the actuality zinger unusual and generally humorous feature story often placed at the end of a newscast --------------------------------------------------------------------- The contents of the Newswriting for Radio website are under copyright and may not be printed or reproduced in any form without permission.