A news bulletin is a short broadcast containing the latest major stories of the day. It must be fresh, dynamic and stimulating to keep listeners returning throughout the day. It must also contain all the essential information, such as weather forecasts and traffic updates.
The number of stories in a bulletin will depend to some extent on the format of a station; serious national broadcasters may use more serious stories delivered at a slower pace than a youth-oriented music station bulletin which might have a brighter tone with stories about popular culture. Within a bulletin, there is some scope to rank stories in order of importance and then re-order them from time to time, ensuring that there are a range of stories and that the pace changes regularly.
In a bulletin, it is important to have a mix of stories which will appeal to your audience; light or humorous stories are often good tail-enders and provide relief from a diet of death, disaster and politics. Using briefs, short stories of one or two sentences each, can help increase the pace of a bulletin.
The newsreader’s voice should be pleasant and attractive; listeners will not return to a news bulletin if they find the newsreader grating or difficult to hear. They must also be clear and concise; if the listeners cannot understand what is being read, they will lose interest. This is particularly important in bulletins which run for a long time; the audience may be listening to several of these over the course of the day and will tire of a droning or repetitive style.