Explore the difference between radio news and daily current affairs programmes, and learn how they work together to keep audiences fully informed.
The purpose of a radio news bulletin is to accurately report on recent (usually on-the- day) events, focussing on answering the classic journalistic questions: What? Why? When? How? Where? and Who?.
Its broadcast style is concise, with a high story-count because it keeps analysis and interpretation to a minimum. Its main content forms are presenter-read scripts, clips of actuality, reporter voice pieces, and short reporter packages. The aim is to give listeners a factual update on stories that have just happened.
The radio current affairs programme format
A daily radio current affairs programme’s purpose is to select some of those stories in the news (or indeed sometimes stories that are not on the daily news agenda) and to offer analysis, background and debate on those stories.
The extra time afforded to those stories, and the format of current affairs programmes, allows the space to scrutinise power in a way that news programmes can’t – to question decisions made by governments, institutions and influential figures.
Typical content forms include live interviews with newsmakers and people in authority, debates with opinion formers, reporter background explainers and long-form reporter investigations.
By offering listeners multiple perspectives you help them understand the broader implications of a story and its significance to them. In short, news is “what happened?”; current affairs is “why does it matter?”
A typical hour of radio journalism can include both elements – news and current affairs. For example, your format could be a five-minute news bulletin at the top of the hour which covers the day’s main stories in a brief, factual manner; and then the remainder of the hour devoted to a current affairs treatment of some of those stories offering analysis and opinion.
How to make current affairs elements
1: Selecting the stories
Firstly, decide which stories merit a current affairs treatment. Not all stories in the news need debate, extra analysis or background explanation. Sometimes the facts just speak for themselves – e.g. a family of four, including two children, have died in a collision on icy roads in the West Country.
Instead, look for the stories that have some depth to them and which would benefit from extra explanation and analysis.
This could be:
- Economic and business issues that are in the news (especially related to the release of economic or financial data),
- Political and policy issues (especially where there are differences between political parties),
- Social issues (especially where you can find examples of social injustices),
- Cultural or show business issues (which can illuminate broader social phenomena or trends).
Many of these can be long-running stories which you are re-visiting, using a development on a given day as a news peg to return to the story again. Equally they could be newly emerging stories which have broken on that day.
They could be stories that you have dug-up yourselves through an investigation. Or they could be a story that another news outlet has covered (perhaps a newspaper, magazine or website), that is not on the main news agenda, but that you think would have an impact on your listeners.
A great source of these types of stories are specialist and trade magazines and websites. You can often find important news stories buried in technical articles – your job in these instances is to make them accessible to a broader audience.
You should also be on the lookout for quirky or uplifting stories. Every current affairs programme should have light and shade. You don’t always want to give listeners an hour of remorseless economic analysis or political debate.
So, as well as covering the big political story of the day, why not also interview the airline pilot who sings his safety announcements to his passengers because he thinks they pay more attention that way?
Or set-up a debate about whether Hip Hop or K-Pop has the most influence on today’s youth culture. It’s likely that neither of those stories would make it into a news bulletin, but they both have a place in current affairs radio.
2: Finding the right voices
The success of a daily current affairs radio programme depends on the quality of interviews. Interviews form the main building blocks of current affairs radio, and you should always aim high with your list of potential interviewees – as one New York Times executive said: “hunt big game, not rabbits”.
So, target the newsmakers on the day’s main stories – for example, the politician embroiled in a scandal, the police officer leading the hunt for a serial killer, the civilian victim of bombing in a war zone, the hospital doctor struggling to cope with survivors of a natural disaster. If you are lucky and conduct the interview skilfully, your interview with the newsmaker will make news itself.
On some stories you are looking for explanation and analysis. This might come from experts: they could be academics, people currently or previously involved in the industry/business you are talking about, specialist journalists, employees of think tanks etc. It’s always good to find new voices if you can, but equally there’s value in having a reliable cast of experts and analysts you can quickly turn to – reliable radio performers who know how to speak succinctly and accessibly to a general audience.
On some stories you will want opinion and debate as well as explanation. In these cases, you need to cast the discussion carefully – on most controversial issues there are at least two sides to a story; for example, if you want to set-up a debate about whether US intervention in Latin America is good for global security, you should make sure that both sides of the argument are represented.
Another important aim for current affairs producers is to humanise a story. If you are reporting on some form of social injustice, for example poor facilities for pregnant women in prison, then you need to find a woman who has given birth in a prison hospital to describe what it is like. And then try to interview someone in authority to hold them to account.
If you are covering the latest crime figures, choose a category of crime that has shown a dramatic increase, and humanise the story by interviewing a victim of that crime. If someone is caught-up in a natural disaster – an earthquake or a flood for example – their powerful eye-witness account can make for compelling listening.
Persuading interviewees to come onto current affairs programmes is an art in itself. The best radio current affairs producers reach out to potential guests in multiple ways – on social media, by email, by text and on the telephone.
Being polite and clear in your request is essential – being flexible about the logistics of an interview also helps. And never underestimate the value of reaching out by telephone – it can be easy to ignore an email or text message – they may never get seen. But it’s much harder for a potential interviewee to brush-off the persuasive voice of a producer on a telephone call.
3: Preparation
The best interviews and debates need thorough preparation.
Presenters will probably be carrying out interviews on several topics – they need to be briefed about each of their interviewees: Who are they? Why are they relevant to the story? What are they likely to say?
The producer should write a short document (a brief) for the presenter suggesting lines of questioning and indicating the likely answer that the interviewee will give.
Where possible the producer will have spoken to the interviewee when inviting them onto the programme, so the brief can be written with knowledge of what’s likely to be said.
This is not always possible – in which case the producer should research the interviewee online and indicate to the presenter what the guest has previously said on this particular topic. Briefing documents should be exactly what they are called – brief. One page is enough to guide most skilled presenters given the amount of material they have to absorb.
Although it is common to suggest lines of questioning to the presenter in the brief, you should not tell your interviewee in advance what precise questions will be asked.
By all means tell the guest the broad areas you will wish to cover in the interview, but don’t give them advance warning of the exact questions – it may give them time to think of ways of giving evasive answers.
And you can never be sure that the presenter will stick to questions the brief has suggested – most presenters like to ask their own questions too.
4: Programme format
The beauty of current affairs programmes is the flexibility of formats. Item lengths can vary from a couple of minutes for a quick quirky interview, to a six-minute news-making interview, to a much longer chunky debate on a big topic.
Interviews can be set-up with clips of actuality, or the presenter can simply cue straight into an interview. Interviews can be live, or pre-recorded.
Reporters can make investigative packages of much greater length than in a typical news programme allowing them to offer greater colour and context.
A programme could include several items on a single story looked at from multiple angles (for example clips of actuality, followed by a news making interview and a debate all on the same topic) or the topic could be covered by just a single interview.
In exceptional circumstances you could do the whole programme on one topic – for example the day after a general election.
In summary, a successful radio current affairs programme can be made in an almost infinite number of ways.
It can combine multiple content types and story-telling techniques to tackle the biggest stories of the day.
It can be both a powerful tool of accountability and a platform for entertaining, off-agenda news items.
At its heart it doesn’t just tell its listeners what has happened, it helps them understand its significance, creating informed and engaged citizens.
