Writing News for Broadcast

Writing News for Broadcast is the Strunk and White of broadcast newswriting books. Long considered the gold standard of broadcast journalism textbooks, this guide for the student and the professional has inspired generations of newscasters through its eloquent examples and emphasis on the writer’s responsibility, commitment, and integrity. It is written in a conversational style reflecting years of professional and teaching experience in radio and television newswriting.

This new edition is fully revised with examples throughout, drawn from fine writing by journalists at networks and local stations. It includes updated chapters covering use of the wire services and special formats that have become popular in recent years such as the newsmagazine. But the third edition retains the inspirational quality that has for years made this text so widely respected. In this process of providing clear, succinct instruction in the basics of the trade, it conveys to students and practicing newswriters a sense of the extraordinary tradition within which they work. The authors’ emphasis on skill and creativity, responsibility to the listener, and appreciation of the profession’s finest hours and finest writers make this book unique.

Author Biography

JAMES L. HOYT is professor of broadcast journalism at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at University of Wisconsin, Madison. EDWARD BLISS, JR. is the editor of In Search of Light: The Broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow, 1938-1961.