Other Conventions of Radio News Bulletins

In this post I am going to be looking at what else is brought to a news bulletin apart from the presenter reading the story.

I will be looking at the following:

1) Going to a correspondent - someone being live at the scene of the story, who works for the radio station

2) Vox pops- members of the public commenting on the story. It could be 2,3 or 4 after each other, with different viewpoints, or there might be an extended vox pop

3) Sound bites- A piece of dialogue about a story from either an elite person or somebody prominently involved with the story - sometimes from a press conference or an interview that has been given, not someone just passing by

4) Outside broadcasts

5) Expert guests - One type of sound bite to give credence to the story

6) Archive clip - something pre-recorded from the past. Could be done when people die or extracts from previous interviews


I listened to 3 different national radio station news bulletins from completely different days and different times:

1. I listened to a news bulletin at 11am on Kiss Fm and none of the above were featured in the news bulletin. Just to check, I listened to another news bulletin on Kiss Fm and again none were included.

2. I listened to a news bulletin at 6am on BBC Radio 4 and I heard a sound bite and a vox pop.

3. I listened to a news bulletin at 9pm on Absolute Radio and I heard an archive clip and a vox pop.

Overall it seems that not all radio station news bulletins include these elements, as was the case with Kiss. However, when they are included it allows the listeners to hear different opinions regarding the news stories which I believe makes the news more interesting to listen to, rather than just hearing the stories being read by the presenter. From doing this task I have decided that I want to include some of these in my news bulletin when I create my radio station.