Responsibilities of a TV News Reporter

Series Summary

Lights, camera, action! You are the news and the news is you when you step in front of that television camera. People from all over your city, or perhaps all over the country rely on you to tell them what's going on in the world or their small piece of it. A t.v. news reporter is a unique combination of journalism and entertainment, of researcher and technician, and of storyteller and fact checker. While newspaper reporters can wear the same dreary raincoat and press hat as they perfect their stories over a cup of coffee, television reporters have to look good and speak clearly and concisely to take advantage of the precious few on-air minutes allotted to their segments.

In this free television and news career advice video series, our experienced anchor tells you everything you need to know about appearing on a newscast with your own commentary or remote report. From the basics of how to find a news story and verify the facts to how to prepare it for broadcast by timing the length and write it for the teleprompter, this is an extensive series for reporters interested in going in from of the camera. Our expert also covers technical aspects such as setting up the camera for your report to using an ear piece to communicate with the broadcast anchors to working with a green screen.

Video Transcript

"BILL ALBIN: Hello, I'm Bill Albin. And on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to teach you what you need to know to be a local news reporter. In this clip, we're going to talk about some of the basic things you need to know to be a news reporter. We're going to hit some highlights about equipment, how you maintain your equipment, what you use it for, things like cameras and computers and things. We're also going to talk about how you find stories, how you present those stories to the public. We're going to talk about some of the basic information you need to use an ENG camera. ENG stands for electronic news gathering, and that's what reporters and photographers do. And in my case, I do a little of both. I report the news, but I also gather my own material. I go out and I shoot the video. I interview the newsmakers, and I come back and I turn that into a story. We'll talk about the different parts of the camera, what they mean, what all the different settings on the lens mean, your zoom activities and your different colors and a lot of different things that make a camera work. We'll talk about the computer systems and the computer software that we use to process a story and to make sure that it's everything you need to know and what the public needs to know once that story is complete. We'll talk about editing software and editing equipment. And we'll talk about a great many other things that really all come together and make a news story from start to finish to become the final product that you see when you get to 6 o'clock in the evening."