It’s designed to be adapted by universities and colleges to meet local needs. The module is designed to equip senior newsroom editors with the essential skills and strategies to lead effectively in today’s dynamic media landscape. Through a blend of theoretical understanding and practical application, participants will explore key areas such as digital transformation, content strategy, newsroom management, project development, and ethical leadership. This six-week programme will foster the ability to adapt to evolving technologies, manage diverse teams, and deliver high-quality journalism in a converged environment.

Week 1: Digital transformation, strategic vision, and ethics

• Topic: Understanding the shift from traditional to digital-first newsrooms, developing a strategic vision for the future, and ensuring adherence to editorial ethics across all devices.
  • Resources:
    • Newsroom evolution: from digital denial to digital-first: This resource details the crucial transition from resisting digital platforms to embracing them, highlighting the strategic shifts necessary for survival and success in the modern news landscape. It is relevant to understand the historical context of the digital change.
    • Strategic forward planning for media organisations: This resource discusses the importance of long-term planning in media, covering how to anticipate changes and adapt accordingly. This is important for developing a long-term newsroom strategy.
    • Why editorial ethics are important: A refresher for all participants about the underlying ethical considerations for all journalism.
    • Lesson – Editorial ethics: The importance of editorial ethics in all news production set out in the form of a lesson that all participants should complete.
  • Activities: Discussion on digital disruption, developing a personal strategic vision statement, case study analysis of successful digital transitions.
  • Outcomes: Participants will understand the importance of digital transformation and develop a framework for strategic planning.

Week 2: Content strategy and prioritisation

• Topic: Mastering online content management, prioritising news, and optimising content presentation.
  • Resources:
    • Managing a news websites front page: This resource provides practical tips for curating and managing the front page of a news website, a critical aspect of online content strategy. It is relevant for understanding how to draw and hold online audiences.
    • Updating an online news item: This resource covers the process of continuously updating online news, ensuring accuracy and timeliness in the digital age. This is important for digital news accuracy.
    • Presenting and exploiting content online: This resource provides guidance on how to maximise the impact of online content through effective presentation and distribution. This is relevant for expanding news reach.
    • How to set online news priorities 2: This resource guides editors in setting priorities for online news, considering factors like audience engagement and relevance. This is key to managing online news flow.
    • Prioritising production with the content value matrix: This resource provides a framework for evaluating and prioritising content based on its value and impact. This is a very useful tool for managing content production.
    • Creating a journalism content weighting system: This resource helps editors to organise and weight content for distribution. This is another vital tool for managing content production.
  • Activities: Content audit exercise, developing a content prioritisation matrix, front-page redesign simulation.
  • Outcomes: Participants will be able to develop and implement effective content strategies for online platforms.

Week 3: Newsroom management and team leadership

• Topic: Effective news meetings, journalist motivation, and handling breaking news situations.
  • Resources:
    • 50 tips for running an effective news meeting: This resource offers practical advice for conducting productive news meetings, essential for coordinating newsroom activities. This is fundamental for newsroom organisation.
    • How to motivate journalists: tips for editors: This article provides strategies for motivating journalists, crucial for maintaining a high-performing newsroom. This is vital for employee management.
    • How to handle a breaking news situation: This resource offers guidance on managing breaking news, ensuring accuracy and efficiency in fast-paced situations. This is important for managing fast changing news.
    • Editorial considerations when a big story breaks: This article provides insight into the editorial decisions that must be made when a major news story breaks. This is important for ethical and accurate reporting.
    • Adopting the big story approach: This resource discusses how to properly manage and execute large, ongoing news stories. This is important for long term news management.
  • Activities: Role-playing breaking news scenarios, team motivation workshops, news meeting simulations.
  • Outcomes: Participants will enhance their leadership skills and learn to manage newsroom dynamics effectively.

Week 4: Converged newsrooms and project management

• Topic: Implementing converged newsroom strategies, managing projects, and utilising social media.
  • Resources:
    • Introducing a converged newsroom strategy: This resource outlines the steps to introduce a converged newsroom strategy, integrating different media platforms. This is important for modern news managment.
    • Creating a converged news operation: This article provides practical guidance on building a converged news operation, optimising workflows and resources. This is important for building a modern newsroom.
    • Convergence workflows, roles and responsibilities: This resource outlines the roles and responsibilities in a converged newsroom. This is important for team management.
    • Basics of project development for a media organisation: This article covers the fundamentals of project development in media, from planning to execution. This is important for managing large news projects.
    • An example of the media project management process: This article provides a real world example of media project management. This is important for understanding real world applications.
    • The skills and techniques of media project management: This article details the skills and techniques required for successful media project management. This is important for developing project management skills.
    • Social media in news production and news dissemination: This resource covers the use of social media in news production and dissemination. This is important for modern news dissemination.
  • Activities: Developing a converged newsroom plan, project management simulations, social media strategy workshops.
  • Outcomes: Participants will gain the skills to manage converged newsrooms and lead media projects effectively.

Week 5: Specialised coverage and election coverage

• Topic: Planning election coverage, understanding the news producer role, and proactive journalism.
  • Resources:
    • Planning tips for effective election coverage: This resource provides practical tips for planning and executing comprehensive election coverage. This is important for managing large scale reporting.
    • The role of the news producer: This resource outlines the key responsibilities of a news producer, a crucial role in modern newsrooms. This is important for understanding modern newsroom roles.
    • Proactive journalism: ensuring issues are fully explored: This resource covers the importance of proactive journalism, ensuring thorough coverage of important issues. This is important for in depth reporting.
  • Activities: Election coverage planning exercise, news producer role-playing, developing a proactive journalism plan.
  • Outcomes: Participants will understand specialised coverage techniques and the role of the news producer in modern newsrooms.

Week 6: Ethical Leadership and Inclusive Newsrooms

• Topic: Ensuring female representation, project development, and ethical considerations in news leadership.
  • Resources:
    • Ensuring female representation in news leadership and coverage: This resource highlights the importance of female representation in news, both in leadership and coverage. This is important for ethical and well rounded reporting.
    • Basics of project development for a media organisation: This article covers the fundamentals of project development in media, from planning to execution. This is important for managing large news projects.
    • An example of the media project management process: This article provides a real world example of media project management. This is important for understanding real world applications.
    • The skills and techniques of media project management: This article details the skills and techniques required for successful media project management. This is important for developing project management skills.
  • Activities: Discussion on ethical leadership, developing a diversity and inclusion plan, final project presentations.
  • Outcomes: Participants will understand the importance of ethical leadership and inclusivity in newsrooms, and they will present final projects.

Timetable:

• Week 1: Digital Transformation and Strategic Vision
• Week 2: Content Strategy and Prioritisation
• Week 3: Newsroom Management and Team Leadership
• Week 4: Converged Newsrooms and Project Management
• Week 5: Specialised Coverage and the News Producer Role
• Week 6: Ethical Leadership and Inclusive Newsrooms

Each week will consist of:

• Lectures and discussions
• Case study analysis
• Practical exercises and simulations
• Group projects and presentations

This structure will allow for a well rounded learning experience.

Summary:

This module provides a comprehensive overview of modern newsroom management, focusing on the strategic and practical skills needed for senior editors. It covers digital evolution, content prioritisation, team motivation, project management, and ethical considerations. Participants will learn to navigate breaking news, plan effective coverage, and ensure inclusivity in their newsrooms. The module combines theoretical frameworks with real-world applications, utilising case studies and practical exercises to enhance learning.

The post Module: Newsroom Management first appeared on Media Helping Media.

In this article we look at the steps involved in creating a news and current affairs programme based on the needs of the target audience.

Essentially, a radio news and current affairs programme has four main format types. These are:

• The interview
  • This is where the presenter interviews someone in the news. It could be about the main story of the day.
  • If it is the most important story this interview would take place immediately after the main news bulletin.
  • It should be between around five minutes long, although this could be stretched to 10 depending on the seriousness of the topic.
  • There will also be shorter interviews throughout the programme.
• The reporter package
  • A package will be put together by a reporter or correspondent and will include a number of clips of people the journalist has interviewed.
  • A package will typically be about three and a half minutes long and contain three or four clips.
  • Each clip will be about 20 to 30 seconds long. The package can be pre-recorded or live.
• The two-way
  • This is where the presenter interviews a reporter or correspondent covering a story.
  • It is designed to tap into the journalist’s background knowledge of the story being covered and is sometimes used before a main interview.
  • A two-way can vary from between 90 seconds to five minutes depending on the importance of the subject matter.
  • It is different in tone from interviews with outside contributors.
  • When the presenter is interviewing someone from outside on a big story, the tone will often be adversarial, pressing the interviewee on important points.
  • In a two-way with a reporter, the presenter is simply trying to draw out the most important facts in a neutral tone.
• The vox pop
  • This is a mix of clips from members of the public who are giving their reactions/opinions on a news story. This should be no longer than three minutes long.
  • It should contain a variety of perspectives so that the audience can hear diverse opinions.

Structure of a current affairs programme

The main purpose of the show is to cover the news and get reaction to it. So the main ingredients are news bulletins, with interviews and longer reports about the individual news items.

There is more to it than that.

There will also be other information vital to the listener, including weather forecasts and sports news, plus perhaps business news, summaries of what is in the newspapers, programme trails for the rest of the network and so on.

These all need to fit together in a regular pattern, so that with familiarity, the listener gets to understand how the programme works. You can think of this as arranging the furniture of the show.

You will probably want your main news bulletins to happen on the hour, perhaps with summaries on the half hour. These are the first fixed points.

The weather and the sports news should also happen at exactly the same time each morning – just as they appear in the same place every day in a newspaper.

The audience likes predictability in the way the content is presented, so that they know when to tune in for the information in which they are most interested.

When you are happy with your programme structure, the task for the production team every day is to think about how the news stories and interviews fit in.

Running order

Every edition of the show works to a running order. A rough running order is produced at the very first programme meeting and then modified and updated as the day and the night develop.

The following is a rough outline for a two-hour-long radio news and current affairs programme.

Exploiting content for maximum impact

Your production team should include at least one person monitoring the live output being produced by the programme.

This person is looking for newsworthy clips to package for the news summaries on the half hour and the main bulletins on the hour, and to illustrate live studio debates.

Your programme needs to be a breaking news production line, continually delivering original newsworthy clips.

This production role should also share all the breaking news clips from across all output and on all appropriate social media channels.

Creating a programme trailer

In order to attract new listeners, you need to create compelling programme trailers to advertise the material to be broadcast in the following morning’s programme.

This is essential, and has to be factored into the daily work pattern. The trailer must promote the main story of the day; the one in which you are planning to invest most resources.

Creating the sort of trailer that will stop people in their tracks and make them pay attention can help win over new listeners, introduce them to the subject matter to be covered on your programme, and, hopefully, encourage them to spread the word by mouth and social media.

A promo trailer should be around 30 seconds maximum, the shorter the better. You want to grab attention. Give the audience a snippet of what is coming up. You don’t want to give them too much, but just enough that they think “I must tune in tomorrow to hear more about that”.

And you want your trailer to be shareable on social media, so the better it is, the more chance it has of going viral. Ask yourself would you share the trailer with your friends? If not, work on it some more. And keep working on it until you think it has the quality to go viral.

Recipe for a good trailer

So how do you create an attention-grabbing radio trailer? Here are a few suggestions.

Encourage your reporter and producers to always be alert to an audio clip that sets out the scale of the issue, but doesn’t give the solution.

For example, you might be doing a story about the rural economy and how people are struggling to survive.

You will have interviewed farmers and villagers. One might say something along the lines of “I didn’t know how I would survive”. Such a quote will make the audience want to know what happened next. What did the interviewee do to survive? Could it be relevant to the listener’s own predicament?

That clip is less than five seconds long, yet it is likely to resonate with thousands of people in a similar position. Of course your piece will no doubt have examined the issues the farmers and villagers face, and you will probably have covered how they coped. But save that for the programme.

The next trick is to package that clip, and perhaps another, with a carefully crafted text that explains WHY people MUST tune in to your programme in order to learn more.

Calls to action

The wording is important.

You could use ‘calls to action’ where your trailer invites the audience to ‘listen’, ‘take part’, and ‘assess’.

Words that suggest drama work well, such as ‘revealed’, ‘for the first time’, ‘life and death decision’.

But you must remain honest. You are in the business of facts not fiction. Never exaggerate.

Another benefit of trailers is that it could encourage your competition, both broadcast and print, to tune in so they can follow up your story. And that’s a good thing. You want them to be following your lead, you want to be known as the station that sets the news agenda. Because by the time they have heard your news item you will have already moved the topic by inviting guests to respond live on-air.

Because trailers should be part of your daily output, you should probably consider creating a template so that it can be used every day.

Something like:

“In tomorrow’s morning programme we will be looking at (here you can mention up to three items), and we will be talking to xxxx about xxxx (insert short clip here).”

The post Creating a current affairs programme first appeared on Media Helping Media.

Journalists need to have a system in place for covering a breaking news story in order to know who does what and when.

This training module was written for a journalism training course in Bangladesh attended by seasoned broadcast journalists.

Knowing who does what, why, when, and how

I was asked to create a training module for a 24-hour TV channel in Dhaka where competition is fierce, and where being last with the news isn’t an option.

Prior to the training senior managers sent me a wish-list of what they wanted fixed in their news organisation. They wanted help handling breaking news in terms of:

1. Speed – a faster response to breaking news alerts
2. Planning and logistics – better coordination of staff and resources
3. Improved communications – who is doing what and when
4. Organising output – roles and responsibilities
5. News management – orchestrating operations

So I shared with them the example of how a commercial international TV and digital news organisation I had worked with in the past dealt with breaking news.

1. Confirmation
   • A breaking news story has to be confirmed by two of the following:
     • A news reporter,
     • A member of the bureau staff in the area concerned
     • Any other independent sources.
2. Action
   • The news programme producer or senior supervisor in charge of the news desk liaises with the international and domestic desks and the interactive team.
   • Regional specialists are alerted. A decision is taken to go live.
3. Collaboration
   • The international desk and the domestic desk discuss how they can each bring different elements to the coverage.
   • The interactive team meanwhile start to piece together the first elements of the story.
   • Depending on the location, one desk covers the main story while the other desk looks for angles that help explain events to their audience.
   • Resources are shared wherever possible.
4. Convergence
   • At the same time the social media team slips into top gear and moves into a well-rehearsed routine which includes updating the online news ticker and providing regular social media updates.
   • Chronological live updates are created along with a live blog.
   • And all this from a team that is sitting in close proximity to the team producing the TV output.
   • They have to be breathing the same air; it is no using having them in a different room, floor, or building.
5. Depth and added value
   • The main news desk lines up its (regional bureau) contacts and correspondents; often this is supported by guest bookers who help out with research the best experts to talk to and arranging interviews.
   • Social media plays a major role when it comes to finding good sources and info snippets or even video and pictures related to the news story.
6. Roles & responsibilities
   • In the first few minutes of a breaking news story the TV anchor plays a crucial role when it comes to asking the right questions and keeping flow of the output going.
   • The initial news-gathering time varies and depends on good sources – which most major news organisations tend to have.
   • Planning, booking, research work together in order to add depth and new angles.
7. Building on breaking news
   • Based on the growing set of information being gathered, the elements of a breaking news show can be built up.
   • They are ordered and arranged by the news programme’s producer or senior supervisor and include support from those running the live output and any specialists on the international desk specialists.
   • The standard elements are interviews or reporters updates with clips, graphics, pictures, social media, witness accounts etc etc.
8. Revising & refreshing
   • Then starts a continuous process of updates.
   • Material is arranged and re-arranged as needed by the production teams – producers, writers, graphic artists etc – the usual TV and online production specialists.
   • The challenge is to stay with the main story, but also to weave in fresh elements.
9. Breaking becomes developing
   • After a while, breaking news transitions into a developing news situation.
   • In exceptional cases, teams on various continents have to take over and keep the story going.
   • This is when the international desk becomes particularly important and busy as it then turns into a logistics and resources management exercise.
10. Developing returns to regular
    • Planners and editors on the main news desk discuss resources with senior management.
    • Depending on the state of the budget – and based on the strength of story – resources are allocated or withdrawn based on cost and the likely reach/impact.
    • Teams are scaled down or built up case by case.
11. Maximum ongoing exploitation
    • As soon as breaking news happens, planners are in action working on follow-ups, studio debates and related programmes.
    • Most news organisations will try to extract and exploit every piece of content for the maximum benefit of the audience and the news brand.
    • Nothing goes to waste, everything is reworked and reused in different output areas and for days ahead, as well as in pick of the week, month, year, etc, etc.
12. Online story development
    • The online news team will have set aside resources in order to build fact-files, timelines, and info graphics which, in a converged news operation, will be created in such a way as to be able to be used online and on air.
    • These interactive assets need to be promoted via the TV anchor in a way that encourages those who want to read about the issue in-depth to remain with brand and move from TV to the online coverage and back.

The post Handling breaking news first appeared on Media Helping Media.