TV News Jargon

Aston/ Name super: A caption on screen. In news programmes it is often the name and job title of the person speaking but you can also have date supers. They are called supers because they are superimposed over the person who is speaking. Often they are called Astons, taken from the name of a company which supplied them for a long time. They are also known as cap gens (cg) as they are often created by a caption generator. They can also be called captions.

Atmos (short for atmosphere): Background noise recorded on location.


Backgrounding: What the people in the newsroom do, whether intentional or not, when they appear behind the set during a newscast.


Big Board / Video Wall: The giant TV a reporter will do the standup tease in front of, displaying chart, poll - most often bullet list.


Block: Any segment of a newscast.

Caption: A still image with text. It could be a way of illustrating someone being interviewing on the phone (with a picture of where they are, or what the story is about, plus some text giving their name). It could be a still picture or photo illustrating the story. 

Chroma-key: A process which allows you to film a presenter in front of a blank screen and add in different pictures behind, making it look as though they are somewhere else. It is sometimes called greenscreen or bluescreen. In the BBC it is often called Colour Separation Overlay (CSO).

Disco: Abbreviation for a discussion in the studio.


Dissolve: Scenes overlap and merge with each other, with the first image gradually giving way to the second. Often used to end one scene and start another.

Donut (Insert): It's an interview on location in which the presenter in the studio hands over to the presenter on location. They describe the situation and interview a guest before handing back to the presenter in the studio.


Down the line (DTL): Interview via satellite
 

Edit suite: A room full of computers where the sound and video and visual material are assembled or edited.


Ear-piece: A part of a device that is placed in the ear for listening to the control room which could connect it with the phone callers when needed.


Feed: Video supplied by news services over telephone lines or satellite.

File: To send a report back from a location.

Float: The name for a series of pictures when a presenter is talking or interviewing a guest but you can't see them on the screen. The pictures you see are called a float because they are floated over the voice of the presenter. They are used to illustrate what the presenter or guest is talking about. The sequence is sometimes called an OOV, which is short for Out Of Vision.

Full Screen Graphic: Graphic taking up the full screen, usually giving information related to the story being told.

Gallery: A room next to the studio where the technical team work to put the programme on air. 

Graphics, shortened to GFX: These are the words, diagrams, maps, etc. that appear on screen.


KILL: Eliminate a story from the newscast mid show.


Land Line (telephone): better to use in phone interviews to avoid mobile network drops during air.

Log: A list of the recorded pictures and words usually compiled as the material is filed. Having a log makes it easier to assemble or edit the report. 

News Agency: An organization set up to provide news material to many journalists. Examples include Reuters, Associated Press (AP) and Agence France Presse (AFP).

News belt: A round-up of short news stories.

News In Brief, shortened to NIB: Short stories displayed on TV. They are also known as wraps, round-ups. Collectively, they form a news belt.


Package: A reporter's story told on tape with video clips of people he or she has interviewed, plus animation, graphics, stills or other visual elements.

 

Panel: The vision mixing equipment in a TV gallery. 

Picture feeds: Video that has been provided by news agencies which media organizations, like the BBC, pay to use.

Post-mortem: A meeting after the programme during which everyone involved discusses how the programme went, what worked, what didn't work and what to do differently next time.

Prospects: A list of possible stories to include in a news programme. 

Running order: The order the stories appear on the programme, containing key details about each of the reports. 

Rushes: Video filmed by a camera crew that requires editing.

Scoop: An exclusive story that no-one else has reported.

SFX: The abbreviation for sound effects.

Slug: A key word which sums up the news story. It saves the journalists writing out the headline over and over again. It's a bit like writing your initials instead of your full name. It's used in the running order to identify the story. Once a slug has been decided, everyone should stick to that name to avoid confusion.


Sound Bite (or Bite): A short clip of an interview. Usually between 10-45 seconds long.


Standup Tease: A brief 'tease' or headline from a reporter, on camera, promoting an upcoming story.

Still: A photograph or graphic. Not a moving picture.

Sting: A bit of music or sound with pictures used to punctuate the programme. Stings are often used at the beginning or the end of a report or to highlight the headlines.

Storyboard: A set of drawings or diagrams showing the shots that will make up a TV report or feature.


Studio Guest: An interviewee in the studio; whether politician, official, analyst or correspondent. 

Style: These are the rules about language and presentation you must stick to when broadcasting. Each media organization, like the BBC, has its own style. 

Stock footage: Shots of common events used to help tell a story e.g. a crowd turning up for a football match. News organizations, like the BBC, often have a library of useful footage that can be used, hence it is often called library material. 


Talent: Those who appear on the air, such as reporters, anchors..


Talking head: Long, uninterrupted head shot of a person speaking.

Titles: Titles mark the start and end of a programme. They usually contain music. They are opening titles and closing titles. Closing titles usually include the names of the people involved in the production, or credits, although news programmes often don't run credits. 

Trail: A short advertisement for an item coming up later on the programme. 

Transmission, shortened to TX: The time and date when the programme is broadcast.


Vid: Video.

Voice over, shortened to VO: A shot in which a presenter talks over a video clip to explain to the audience what is going on. See also Out Of Vision. 

Vox pops: A type of short interview where members of the public are stopped at random and asked a question. It helps the audience gauge opinion on a particular subject. Vox pop is short for vox populi, a Latin phrase which means "voice of the people". 

Video Tape, shorted to VT: Before digital technology, video tape was widely used for recording moving pictures. The term VT is still used to refer to all video, whether it's on tape or digital.


2-Way: Live phone interview made by an anchor.

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* Source: BBC Website.