Melanie McGrice
If you were a journalist you may think that TPN stands for ‘The Podcast Network’ or ‘Third Production Negotiation’ instead of Total Parenteral Nutrition. Just as journalists have no idea what our dietetic lingo means, you too may not understand some of the colloquial media dialectif you’re new to the world of media. Remember in high school when you were only part of the ‘cool group’ if you spoke the in-vogue vocabulary?It can be more difficult to break in to the media crowd if you don’t understand their lingo, so let me, like, give you a few hints….ok Sweets?
“advertorial” – an article that has been paid for.
“break out box” – usually a list of 3 or 4 short bullet points to
“byline” – one sentence that describes the author.
“copy” – written material ready for print.
“embargo” – the earliest date that a story is allowed to be distributed.
“grab” – one succinct sentence that describes your key message.
“hook” – the angle of a story that captures the audiences attention.
“sound bite” – a short segment of someone speaking.
“spill line” – text at the bottom of an article indicating that the article will be finished somewhere else eg. ‘continued on page 12’.
“stock” – generic footage or photographs that is owned by the media outlet eg. might be of overweight people walking down the street or models on a catwalk.
“strapline” – also known as a tagline is a sub heading.
“two shot” – a camera angle which fits two or more people on the screen at the same time.