Everyone who has ever seen the news is vaguely familiar with the formula of how a standard news piece is put together.  When it’s not a breaking news story, just something they want to push a report on, there’s a pretty standard template of how to do it.  Newswipe, a BBC Four TV news satire program featuring UK broadcaster, writer, and satirist Charlie Brooker, has put together the definitive lazy producer’s guide to video news structure.  Check it out below.

Warning:  There’s one dirty word, and one lighthouse keeper being beheaded by a laser beam.

I have to say, this is dead-on, isn’t it?  All TV, from the news on down, is so formulaic as to be sickening.  Once you know the templates to look for, in any movie or program, you can usually have a vague idea of what to expect.  I could probably storyboard a news report blindfolded.  I know my friend in TV news is going to get a big kick out of this, because she knows it’s true.

Tags: Newswipe, Charlie Brooker, satire, TV news satire, how to report the news, Newswipe With Charlie Brooker, BBC Four, news report style

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