How to Cover a Controversial Issue for TV News

TV News is all about controversy. Just about every story involves something controversial. The more that people disagree about the subject of a TV news story, the bigger the story is. It is essential that a reporter know how to cover a controversial story accurately and fairly. It is the job of a journalist to present all sides of the story. This is not only fair, it is the right thing to do. Reporters are supposed to be impartial. The best way to do that is to let everyone have their say and make sure all your information is correct.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Focus on a single controversy. TV news stories are generally 90 seconds or less. Reporters don't have time to cover more than one controversy in the same story. Concentrate your story on a single controversy so that your questions are uniform and all your interviews are talking about the same thing.

2. Identify people to interview who can give you diametrically opposing points of view. A controversial story isn't very controversial if your interviews don't disagree much. Reporters must strive to represent the extremes of a controversy. This is also essential for balance. You can't be accused of bias if you allow everyone to have their say. Keep in mind that there may be more than two points of view in a controversy.

3. Frame your interviews so that they face each other. TV interviews are shot with the subject looking either to the right or left side of the screen. When interviewing people of differing points of view make sure those with opposite opinions are facing opposite directions. This way they will appear to be facing off when their sound bites are pitted against each other in your story. It is also a subconscious reminder to the audience that these people see things differently.

4. Get your interviews to express their deepest feelings on the controversial subject. It is a reporter's job to get to the heart of the subject. Cut through all the double talk and niceties. Press your interviews to explain why they are so passionate about their point of view and why they believe the other side is wrong.

5. Get reactions to your interviews with other interviews. Nothing inflames the passions of a person involved in a controversial TV news story as the accusations of someone who disagrees with them. Tell the person you are interviewing what their opposition said about them. Be sure to go back and tell the other interview the response. This is the interaction viewers want and need to see in a controversial news story.

6. Be careful how you frame your sound bites. Allow all sides to state their opinions without comment from the reporter. If you lead into a sound bite seeming to ridicule or belittle an interview's point of view, you will be accused of bias. Opinionated interviews make the case for themselves. Let the viewer decide who is right.

7. Allow equal time. All opposing sides in a controversial TV news story should be given the same number of sound bites. Those sound bites should run approximately the same amount of time. This doesn't have to be equal down to the second, but within reason. It is not fair if one side gets more face time than another.

Tips & Warnings

• It is essential that a reporter do everything she can to get all sides of a controversial story. However, there are times when a reporter can not get all sides by their deadline. In cases like this the reporter must mention these efforts in their story. In the absence of a current response, a past comment on the issue can be sited in the proper context. It is unacceptable to simply ignore a point of view in a controversial TV news story.