Various kinds of television formats are referred to in T. V. programme-the documentary, the “news special” against a deadline, the depth interview, the panel discussion. These may be regularly scheduled on a weekly or monthly basis or they may be dropped in-pre-empting a scheduled programme-as timelines or other factors dictate.
Both network and station news and public affairs departments make frequent use of one or another of these formats, and recently they have run such a gamut of subject matter that it takes the broadest definition of journalism to hold them all.
On the average, the in-depth programmes do not command anything like the audience for news and for live programmes. Those who do watch can be moved, stimulated, informed, and educated by well conceived, intelligent broadcasts of this type.
Regardless of the form of the programme, it is distinct from other in-depth treatments because it is prepared in a limited time. A television news team which is experienced and does not have to worry too much about budgets can put together news special in short order. This may cost it the perspective that more time would permit, but it does give the audience additional dimension to the story while it is still fresh.
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The undated documentary such as those produced by the Films Division treats a subject not tied to breaking news or one which will not lose its effectiveness if its broadcast time is months away from its inception. Here, of course, the producers can have more of everything than they can with deadline specials. There is room for expanded planning, additional research time, greater refining, and increased time for a mature point of view.
In the last few years there has been an additional broadening of the scope for documentaries, by which the news content stretches over many subjects not ordinarily thought of as news. Some include history, literature, music, art, and the personal profile or biography.
Brief documentary background pieces have been finding their way into the body of the expanded network and local station news programmes. Running three, four, or five minutes, these consist of in-depth treatments, which sound like a contradiction in terms.
But whatever they may lose in the condensation, their advocates point out they gain a considerably larger audience than they would as full- length programmes of their own. If the story is worth it, it may be treated in three-to-five minute segments over a period of days within the news programme. This has the advantage of coming back to a topic again and again instead of treating it only once.
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Talk Programmes and Depth Interviews
Both networks and television stations offer, in addition to ad hoc specials and documentaries produced over longer periods, “talk” programmes which go into more depth on news and on issues than is possible on the daily news. One variety is represented by Meet the Press and its counterparts on other networks. The same format appears in local station versions all across the country.
Depth interviews, panels of experts, debates between political candidates or government officials are other ways in which television journalism puts meat on the bones of the news. Still another is taking the television camera to a scheduled event like town meeting, the campus symposium, the teach-in. The audience-pulling power of such public affairs programming-lacking the visual and actuality advantages of news and documentary-depends on how important the participants are and how controversial or how exciting the subject.
“Talk” programmes are easier and cheaper to produce than documentaries or specials. At both local and national levels, there is keen competition to land the public figure-of-the-hour for the programme, but public figures at every level see television as a valuable means of exposure, and there are enough to go round. Most receive no honorarium for appearing, and the behind-the-camera production team is comparatively small.