How to Write Good Sports Journalism

Video Transcript

I'm Jamal Spencer for Expert Village here at ABC3 here in Lansing and we're going to talk about how to be a successful sports broadcaster. This clip is about writing a story. When you're writing a story your best friends are either pen and paper or your fingers and a keyboard. Now we're getting electronic with it so you have palm pilots and other places that you can write a story. But you have to be prepared. You always have to travel with a pen and notepad. Even if you're an on-camera reporter you always have to be able to take notes. Also micro-recorders work too. When you are writing a story you obviously want to get the who, what, when and the how. But the key to successful story telling is telling the audience something that they don't already know. It?s not enough for me to tell you that Coach K is one of the most successful coaches in the history of college basketball. It's not new information if I tell you that Bobby Knight has a temper. So I have to tell you why Bobby Knight has a temper. I have to tell you why in 1983 this happened and Bobby Knight's been mad ever since. You have to tell the audience something that they don't know when you're writing a story. When you're writing an introduction to a story, you want to tease them; you want to bring them along slowly. You kind of want to leave gold coins. That?s a phrase that I had a professor who used it. He calls it gold coins. When you're telling a story you want to drop gold coins that will catch the audience's attention or will make them even more interested in the story itself. So when writing a story, remember, in the lead, the intro, you kind of want to lead them into it, tease them but don't give them too much information. But give them just enough that they want to keep watching. And during the story itself, give them something they've never seen before or they might not know. That's the key to successful story telling; telling the audience something that they don't already know. Remember when you're doing a story on a basketball player; try to to have footage of that basketball player. It's called b roll. You run that over the interview so that the audience can see what you are talking about. You can make your video match your audio. You can try to find this footage on satellite dish or server at your TV station or maybe the high school basketball coach has footage on this guy. So try to have footage of whatever it is you are talking about because it only enhances your story-telling. When you can match the audio to the video you can tell a successful story because then the audience can see what you're talking about. They don't have to rely on your words. They can see it. The proof is in the video. So remember that. Successful story-telling; lead them in, give them something they don't already know, have them have videos so they can match the audio so they can see it as well and be quick. Be precise and be accurate. That's how you successfully write a story.

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