11  Reporting Assignments

Reporters spend most of their careers covering spot news, which dominates the contents of all radio and TV newscasts. Spot news includes fires, accidents, holdups, and other incidents that occur every day, with varying frequency, in every city and town in the nation.

As mentioned in Chapter 9, reporters learn about most spot news stories from the police and fire radio advisories. Tips from viewers and listeners can also provide the first word on a spot news story.

This chapter discusses the most common types of spot news stories, and Chapter 12, “Covering Planned Events,” examines a variety of other typical assignments. The purpose of these two chapters is to describe the various types of assignments and to highlight ...

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