Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work on a newsday?  This article will offer you a taste of what happens at the STAFFS LIVE Newsroom behind the scenes. 

What is Newsday?

• Every Friday, level six and master’s level sports journalism students at Staffordshire University participate in a newsday, serving as editors, presenters, and reporters.
• The newsday broadcast consists of two bulletins: a 12pm bulletin that provides listeners with news in a concise format, and a 2pm bulletin that is lengthier and gives listeners an in-depth understanding of the topics that were previewed in the earlier bulletin. 
• In the first semester, running from September to December, students cover radio, and in the second semester, which runs from January to May, they cover TV packages.    

The planning process for Newsday

• The level six and masters students studying sports journalism gather on Wednesday to decide which stories will be featured in the Friday newsday show.
• The editor may allocate stories to each member of the team during the editorial meeting.

Newsday Roles and responsibilities

• Editor: chooses who covers which stories and how long each package will be. The length of the package varies according to the number of stories in the programme; the more stories there are, the shorter the package; alternatively, the longer the package.
• The order in which the stories are presented in the programme is also decided by the editor; typically, the most recent news is shown first.
• Presenter: The presenter’s job is to give the viewers a live presentation of the programme.
• Reporters: their job is to investigate the stories editors give them. ensuring that they get B-Roll and interviews for their segment before editing the package in advance of Friday’s broadcast.

Radio and TV packages

• Reporters need to consider the sounds and potential disturbances in the area where they wish to carry out the interview when creating audio packages. For TV Packages, the reporter must think about the background also when interviewing and filming pieces to camera.
• It’s important to give sufficient information so that those listening may visualise what has happened or is happening when working on an audio piece.
• Reporters need to be creative while producing a TV package and identify the best alternative to visually represent the story if there isn’t a suitable area that captures the scene.