View a 30-minute television newscast. Any newscast in any market, presented at any time of day will be sufficient.

Many stations stream their news live.

Write down:
The names of stories presented in order,
Identify what type of story each one is (copy, VO, VO/SOT, package, live, etc.),
Approximate length of each story.

Answer the following questions about the newscast:

1) What was the time of and the name of the newscast?

2) Did the program open with a pre-show tease or a pre-recorded open?

3) How many stories were presented?

4) How many commercial breaks appeared in the newscast? What was the approximate length of each commercial break?

5) How many segments, or blocks, appeared in the newscast? (Blocks usually go from commercial break to commercial break)

6) Were there pre-recorded return bumpers, or “restarts”?

7) How many times did weather appear in the newscast?

8) Did the news anchor(s) toss live to weather and sports anchors, or were they introduced by pre-recorded opens? Did weather and sports anchors toss back to the news anchor(s)?

9) Did the anchors tie any of their stories to their online site.

10) Did the anchors have to fill time wich chit-chat at the end, did they cut it short, did the show end of time?

Newscast Analysis