What Makes A Compelling TV News Story?

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Television news is a medium that has enormous potential, most of which is not realized.

It is not realized, not because the medium is inherently limited - it is not. It is not realized because of the way the medium is used.

For almost all of the history of television news, it was a medium that was deeply constrained by cost and complexity. To make a TV news story required an expensive camera, an expensive edit suite and a team of people. Because cameras were so expensive, TV stations could only afford a few of them. A local TV news station, even in a major market, might only have 8 or 9 camera ‘crews’. To fill the daily news hole meant that those crews had to be used for a limited amount of time and on the day.

This notion of ‘on the day’ was not a function of good journalism - it was a function of the technological limits of making TV stories.

All that has now changed, except the process - in most places.

In most TV news operations, the reporter/camera person come in in the morning, get their assigned story - head out- shoot some stuff, then come back where they write the script, the piece is edited and it goes on the air. Tomorrow, same thing.

In our work with Spectrum News 1 for the past four years, we have approached the process of making TV news in a radically different way - driven largely by the technology.

Instead of using a limited number of cameras, all of our reporters, or MMJs, work with an iPhone. That’s what they shoot with. And of course, they have the iPhone with them all the time, 24-hours a day, 365 days a week. This is their reporter’s notebook. Just as a newspaper journalist requires only carrying a pencil and paper, so too the TV journalist now carries their digital pencil and paper all the time. Thus, they are free to report in a very different way.

The story above, by Spectrum News 1 MMJ Jamil Donith (Texas), is a great example of a very different kind of TV news reporting.

She was able to follow a family, made homeless by the pandemic, over a period of months instead of showing up for an hour or so, shooting some b-roll and an interview or two.

You can see the difference.

This is an in-depth report, the kind of thing that might win a Pulitzer at a newspaper; or perhaps be a documentary special. But it is neither. It is just another story done for Spectrum News 1’s daily news program.

Also note how the use of a phone gives you a greater sense of intimacy with the subjects. Big cameras are intimidating. No one is intimidated by a phone. No one.

And, Jamil did this entire story on her own - found it, shot it, reported it, edited it and produced it.

This is the TV news of the future, but it is here now.