A news bulletin is a short report on a topic of interest to your audience, broadcast at regular intervals during the day. It combines news, features and opinions.
A typical radio news bulletin lasts three minutes. It’s impossible to include every story which might interest your listeners, so you must make tough decisions about what to include. Often you’ll have to choose stories which are not as important as others, and then cut down the words in those stories. A report of a fire or an accident for example will need to be very short, using snappy sentences to convey simple ideas; a long political controversy will require more words and longer sentences to explain complex issues.
You must also get the pace of the stories right. Some stories have a very fast pace, such as an emergency call-out or an accident on the roads. These stories should be written in short, snappy sentences and spoken quickly. Other stories, however, will need to be longer and have more complex ideas – these can be more wordy and slower to read.
Your listeners will expect a balance of stories, some serious and some light. They’ll want to know about things which affect them directly, but they’ll also enjoy hearing a good human interest story or a piece of amusing news.
Actuality – recordings of real life events such as interviews or speeches – can add a lot to your bulletin. However, you must ensure that all actuality is carefully introduced and edited. A minute-long grab from a dull voice will slow the pace of your bulletin and may cause listeners to switch off. You should also avoid introducing grabs in languages other than your own without first overdubbing (fading down the original speech to where it can be heard, then playing the translated voice over it).