Radio Current Affairs is an opportunity for a radio or television journalist to tell long
format journalism. This allows the journalist a chance to include many more details,
scenes and stories to tell the overall story they are trying to get across. While there are no
hard and fast rules – below are some general guidelines.
Formats:

1. The Debrief – The debrief is conducted between a host and journalist. The
journalist could be live in the studio or out in the field. This is where the
journalist is asked a series of questions by the host – and they tell the story in as
descriptive way as possible.

2. The Talk Tape – The talk tape is similar to the Debrief except that the journalist
includes audio clips. So – when the host asks a question – the journalist answers
– and can also play a clip in the body of that answer. This also allows the
journalist to include several voices from people connected to the story.

3. The short documentary – or “pak” as known in the field. This is where the
journalist gathers a lot of sound and clips and then put it all together in a story
they voice. Similar to a radio story – it simply is a longer version with more
scenes and information – and usually includes a number of people. This can also
be done in television – which is slightly longer than a television news story. But
in that case it must include many interesting pictures – moving video – to tell the
story.

4. The long format documentary – or ‘doc’ as known in the business. This is done
in both radio and television. It tells a very detailed and indepth story – with a lot
of great audio and visuals – characters and scenes.

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