How to Cover a Protest for the TV News

Protest is the precursor to change in our society. As a result, TV news reporters cover many protests. While many protests seem disorganized and haphazard, there is a definite order to the way journalists should cover them. All TV news coverage of protests requires interviews with people from all sides of the issue, pictures and sound from the action, and facts that provide context.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Focus the story on what the protest is about. Many times a protest can morph into a free for all of discontent. Different people at a protest may be there for completely different reasons. Even those staging the protest may have a laundry list of issues. Limit your story to a single point. TV news stories are short. You only have time for one issue. If you juggle topics you will also confuse viewers. Sticking to a single topic also forces your interviews to talk about the same thing.

2. Find interviews representing all sides of the issue. Someone is always staging the protest, so it is easy getting one side. Sometimes there is a counter protest nearby allowing you to get the other side. Often the other side is no where in sight. In that case you must go find them. Call around and find an interview who can give you another perspective. It is essential for balance. Frame your contrasting interviews facing different directions so it looks natural when you cut their sound bites together.

3. Keep your interviews on point. Protesters tend to ramble when they get a hold of a microphone. Focus your questions on the specific topic of the protest. Seek out the other side of the issue and focus them on that topic as well. This may sound obvious, but many times reporters find themselves with interviews that don't really contrast because they aren't addressing the same thing. Contrasting interviews are the point of a protest story.

4. Allow the protest to unfold by itself. When TV news cameras arrive at a protest the crowd comes alive. They are playing to the camera. Do not encourage this. Staging chanting, marching or sign waving is unethical. Just sit back and watch while the photographer shoot the action.

5. Utilize natural sound. If protesters are chanting or screaming, allow this to tell much of the story. It is always preferable to use sound that happens by itself rather than sound from arranged interviews. It gives viewers the feel of what it is like to be there.

6. Present the protest in context. Most of the time protests are organized by professional protesters. The crowd is often recruited to be there specifically for the TV cameras. Viewers deserve to know this. It is appropriate to reveal who organized the protest and how many people were there. Photographers should shoot the protest honestly. Too many tight shots will make the crowd look larger than it is. Too many wide shots will make it look smaller.