James Bond in Blue Uniform

CMJ 236 4.1

It’s a technology gathering of 65 companies showing their latest gadgets that James Bond would be proud of.  Cindy Williams, anchor for WLBZ2, reports on the story gadgets make police work easier, safer that can be found as a video on the WLBZ2 website. Companies show casing their latest crime fighting gadgets for the police force to   do their jobs better, more efficient and safer.

The event took place in South Portland about three hours from Orono but I feel this story is still local. If law enforcement bought a new technology it would spread to other law enforcements in the state. I consider it local news as well because people in Orono or South Portland would like to know about law enforcement since drivers are aware of police every time they drive.

After watching the newscast and paying attention to the writing if I was the editor I don’t believe I would of changed much of the writing content. Williams is very engaging with interviewing what we assume is someone involved with the police department, Williams doesn’t introduce him. That’s one thing I would add, introducing the man Williams interviews and mention it’s in South Portland or Southern Maine.

With an interview story when there’s back to back dialog there isn’t much writing style that an editor can play with. It has to get the audiences attention and make them feel engaged as if they were standing with Williams looking at different type of law enforcement gadgets.

As an editor I would make changes to William’s tone of voice and change some of the verb tenses on the script before air. First thing views see is police lights which catch people’s attention already that’s why police cars have them. Then the audio kicks in with Williams saying “whoa”. Then she continues with her report that “there’s nothing that gets your attention like lights!” This is the only sentence that really bugs me because I feel it’s kind of childish, like Williams is trying to keep a five year olds attention with flashing lights. Changing it to ‘companies are working on making police lights brighter to catch your attention better’ would be more effective to the viewers.

I enjoyed the references to Back to the Future and James Bond mentioned in the report. The medium age of WLBZ2 viewers almost all grew up with those two movies or at least heard of them. It makes the report more relatable and personal.

This report is written well and I wouldn’t have changed much if I was the editor. If this report was to be written for a newspaper I would change much more but for broadcast it holds up pretty well.

Gadgets Make Police Work Easier, Safer

http://www.wlbz2.com/video/default.aspx#/Local/Gadgets+make+police+work+easier%2C+safer/49383985001/49452227001/64920244001