First, the connotation of news planning
Planned, also known as "planned", there is a saying in "The Biography of Xiao Wei in the Later Han Dynasty": "It is the end of fame and fortune, and it is planned to recover." It means planning and planning. Some people think that the ambush and trap-digging behavior of primitive people during hunting has flashed the light of planning thought and practice. Wonderful examples of planning can often be seen in ancient books. For example, when Tian Ji won the horse race, that is to say, Sun Bin adopted the strategy of "regarding you as the next, regarding you as the top, regarding you as the next, regarding you as the next". In the series of Harvard Business Management, there is such a passage about planning: "Planning is a procedure, which is essentially a rational behavior using brain power. Basically all planning is about the future, that is to say, planning is to make current decisions about what will happen in the future. In other words, planning is to find out the causal relationship between things and measure the ways that can be taken in the future as the basis for current decision-making. In other words, planning is to decide in advance what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and who will do it. " It can be seen that planning is a procedure, which is a process of judging the changing trend of things and determining possible goals according to relevant information, so as to design and choose the resource allocation and action mode that can produce the best effect, and then form the correct decision and implementation plan, and strive to ensure the realization of the goals.
As a new concept in the field of journalism, there is no word "news planning" in the existing journalism dictionaries in China. What is news planning? In my opinion, news planning is the decision-making and design work of practitioners in media positioning and news editing activities. News planning can be divided into broad sense and narrow sense. Broadly speaking, news planning includes media planning and news report planning. News planning in a narrow sense refers to the planning and organization of news reports. From the scale of planning, media planning belongs to overall planning, including determining the editorial policy of the media, designing the overall scale and internal structure of the media, and designing various parts of the media. News reporting planning includes determining the theme of each stage and planning news reporting activities, that is, thinking and imagining what to report and how to report it. News planning is an indispensable link in the production process of media and its products. Some influential and directly market-oriented newspapers, such as Huaxi Dushi Bao in Chengdu, are the products of the plan. Xi Wenju, its editor-in-chief, even thinks: "The editor-in-chief should be the master planner, who should understand both micro planning, medium planning and macro planning." The process of channel and frequency specialization of electronic media is also inseparable from planning. It can be said that most of the traffic stations, music stations, life stations, economic channels and children's channels of TV stations were born because of planning. A number of excellent radio and television programs such as News Horizon, CCTV Focus Interview and Tell the Truth are all the results of careful planning. In recent years, there are many examples of domestic mainstream media using news planning to achieve good reporting results. For example, after the bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia, Beijing Youth Daily organized a large-scale report in eight editions, which were ranked as "the strongest protest", "the loudest voice", "the most angry action", "the darkest midnight", "the most brutal trampling", "the deepest sorrow" and "the most powerful support" in turn. The whole group of reports is quite shocking and powerful.
In the Iraq war report in 2003, CCTV showed the real situation of the war and the news behind the news to hundreds of millions of viewers through high-level planning and a series of special reports, including a large number of news, live broadcasts, interviews with military experts and special topics. Planning is of great benefit, which has become the knowledge of the majority of employees and translated into concrete actions.
News planning contains rich contents. Media positioning is related to the life and death of a media. And news report planning operates more frequently than media planning. If media planning is the positioning and design of the content and form of the whole media and its components in a long period of time, then news reporting planning is a kind of planning that continues with the passage of time. The object of media planning is the media, and the object of news reporting planning is news reporting activities. The two are different and interdependent. On the one hand, the positioning of the media is the basis of the topic selection of news reports, on the other hand, the positioning of the media depends on the specific reports. In a sense, news report planning is the extension and concretization of media positioning. Due to the limitation of space, this paper focuses on news planning in a narrow sense, that is, news report planning.
To do a good job in news planning, we must correctly understand news planning. The urgent task is to clarify the boundary between the concepts adjacent to news planning and get out of the misunderstanding caused by its unclear connotation and extension. The differences and connections between news planning and news planning, news planning and report planning, and news planning and "idea" are sorted out in turn.
First, news planning and planning news. As far as word formation is concerned, it seems to be the same, but the word order is different and the meaning is opposite. In practical work, because the news of barnyard grass planning and the news of grass seedling planning are difficult to separate in the field, some people are angry and burn everything, and advocate removing it together; Some people also put up with barnyard grass for fear of hurting seedlings. News planning is by no means news planning, there are essential differences between them. It is a misunderstanding to regard news planning as making fake news to obtain sensational effect and economic benefits. As we all know, news is a report of recent or ongoing facts. Facts first, news later, and reports later. The order of these three links cannot be reversed. Do a good job in news planning on the premise of being loyal to facts and being objective and true, that is, news reporting planning, including the selection of reporting topics, the setting of reporting standards, the selection of interviewees, the determination of reporting methods and the preparation of background materials. It is the proper meaning of the planner's question. This is a detailed and complicated system engineering. On the other hand, planning news is to arrange, direct and create news according to the subjective will of the communicator before the fact happens. In other words, without the intervention and intervention of communicators, this thing may never happen in the natural state. However, news written, directed and reported by communicators is regarded as a fact in a natural state, which not only violates the basic law that the origin of news is a fact, but also deceives the audience. Therefore, we must resolutely put an end to planning and making fake news under the banner of news planning, otherwise, the credibility of the news media will be damaged. News planning is the abbreviation of news report planning. We plan news reports, not facts or news itself.
Second, news planning and reporting plan. In the past, news report planning was called "report plan" and "report outline". They are similar and both reflect people's plans and arrangements for future actions. But there is still a difference between the two. The reporting plan pays more attention to the wishes and demands of the communicators, but lacks sufficient attention to the needs and feedback of the audience. When designing the report, it emphasizes planning, lacks innovation and strategy, and lacks adaptability and flexibility in the operation of the report. In addition to emphasizing planning and creation, news planning pays attention to the regulation of reports. Unlike report planning, it covers a wide range, involving all aspects of news work, both macro, such as media planning, the formulation of editorial policies, and micro, such as the planning idea of a specific report, the deployment of editorial power, etc., while report planning is only the arrangement and arrangement of the report itself. From the frequency of use, there are annual plans, quarterly plans and monthly plans, while news planning is often not limited by annual, quarterly and monthly plans, but generally depends on needs. Since the second half of 1990, under the fierce competition, the planning of China news media and its news reports has been greatly enhanced, and it is inevitable that "news planning" will be gradually replaced by the new term "news planning".
Third, news planning and "ideas". A successful plan often begins with a good idea. But to turn an idea and idea into a concrete report, we need to plan this link. Planning is a systematic project, which contains many contents. It is obviously one-sided to pay attention to planning and ignore it. On the contrary, it is biased to pay attention to planning and ignore it. To equate planning with thought is to simplify planning, but if the relationship between the two is not found, the role of thought will be underestimated.
Clarifying the connotation of the concept of news planning is helpful to clarify the vague understanding and improve the effect of news communication. So, what are the positive meanings of news planning?
Second, the significance of news planning
The prosperity of news planning today is not an accidental phenomenon, but an inevitable result of news competition. Everything is established in advance, and it is abolished if it is not foreseen. News planning pays attention to the early intellectual input, which is a rational behavior of using brain power. Its positive influence is obvious.
First of all, news planning is conducive to giving play to the subjective initiative of the subject of communication. News planning is the result of communicators' choices and decisions through the understanding, analysis and prediction of information, and it is the product of objective existence acting on people's subjective consciousness, and then generating dynamic response. Through news planning, we can fully tap and highlight the news value of facts and make full use of reporting methods to achieve better communication effects. This is still an objective report, just an active objective report, which is a dynamic and positive reflection of practice. If there is no plan, no active organization, and we are satisfied with the processing of incoming materials, we will send out whatever the correspondent comes and what the reporter writes. This is a passive situation, the whole report will appear blind, scattered and mediocre, lacking discipline and impact, and it is difficult to win in the news war. In the past, news editors were called "trigger pullers", which meant that their job was mainly to stop news reports. News planning extends the scope of editing work to the front of news reports, that is, participating in the operation before the news reports begin. News editors communicate with reporters in time, complement each other's advantages and release their potential, which is conducive to broadening reporting ideas and improving reporting methods. For example, the report on SARS can be reported in many ways. It can show the panic of people suffering from SARS, and it can also show people's fearless spirit in fighting SARS. Although these facts exist objectively, the choice of reporting angle and how to highlight the characteristics in the composition on the same topic show the subjective initiative of the subject of communication. Secondly, news planning is conducive to the media to produce more high-quality products to meet the needs of the audience. The audience's position in news communication activities is constantly improving. Modern news communication is no longer a one-way information flow of "I pass it on to you". On the one hand, the disseminator transmits the selected news information to the audience according to the law of news value, on the other hand, the feedback of the audience to the relevant information will also reach the disseminator, which will affect the communication behavior of the disseminator. The influence of audience on communication activities has been paid more and more attention by communicators, and the needs of audience and their response to reports have become an important basis for news planning and measuring communication effects. Issues of general concern to the audience and social hot issues should be the key topics of news planning. Only works that fully meet the information needs of the audience and have a form that the masses like to see and hear are fine works. In addition, the audience's attention to the level of news reporting and the requirements for the depth of reporting are also different from the past. They should not only know what happened, but also care about the detailed process of things and the relevant comments of news and media behind the news, and take this as their decision-making basis. As a senior reporter said: "Today, the concept of exclusive news has undergone profound changes. Exclusive news not only means seizing the first landing point and the first time, but also means exclusive ideas, exclusive perspectives and exclusive methods. For the same news event, we should try our best to dig deeper news facts than others; Expound new ideas and ideas. Pay special attention to the causes, causes and trends of events behind the facts known to readers; Journalists can use analogy, metaphor, data analysis and other methods to give an exclusive explanation of the incident. " This sentence shows the necessity and importance of news planning.
Third, news planning is conducive to improving the visibility of the media and expanding its influence in society. Through careful planning, the media can maximize the development of news resources to meet the information needs of the audience, thus establishing a media brand. The insiders believe that Phoenix Satellite TV always has a good performance at the right time, and its success comes from the planning of the project. As far as the content of the report is concerned, its selection strategy is "picking up what is missing" and the reporting angle is "alternative choice", trying to provide space that mainland media can't or can't touch, especially in the reporting of some major emergencies such as "9. 1 1 incident", which further demonstrates its own advantages, attracts more and more attention, and the influence of the media is increasing day by day.
The development of science and technology has brought people a lot of information. Nowadays, people urgently need the media to guide them in order to obtain effective information. Therefore, the "agenda setting" in exchange activities is particularly important. In order to win the competition in the increasingly fierce news war, the main body of communication must be far-sighted, take the pulse of the audience, filter the information, plan the theme and scheme of the report, so as to achieve the expected purpose of communication.
Third, the misunderstanding of news planning.
News planning pursues the positive effect of "whether you have it or not, whether you are new, whether you are new or not, and whether you are fast or not". The positive significance of news planning to media and audience is obvious to all. In the difficult exploration of constantly upgrading news planning to a higher level, we should not only recognize the difference between news planning and news planning, but also be alert to the misunderstanding of news planning.