An Eye for News Chapter 17

 

 “Xiao Se, I’ll help you with the video editing to give you more time to focus on your script. I know your writing speed is quite slow.”

Hai Dong gathered the camera tapes after looking at his watch.

Se Cai’s Sony Dsr-150p used obsolete dvcam tapes. They were similar in properties to the old ca.s.sette tapes but were smaller in size.

Unlike newer models which utilized flash drive or storage cards, the video files in such camera couldn’t be directly copied. It needed to be first converted using professional video-editing software like edius or adobe premiere.

The conversion process was long and tedious. It required someone standing by to prevent the tape from clogs, incomplete conversion and the like.

The fact that Hai Dong as the program producer volunteered to help Se Cai with such a menial work showed how much he set store by this news and Se Cai.

“Alright. Thank you, Director Bai.”

Se Cai thanked Director Bai for his gracious help and flipped open a laptop to get started on his writing.

County S Tv Station wasn’t prominent enough to be able to directly send their news to the central station, they had to go through the station in province city Z. The detour ate into the time Se Cai had, which was about 1 hour.

Unlike other current news program, ’s beat was society and lifestyle. In other words, they didn’t have a strict format in their reporting style as long as the news followed the accepted 5W1H structure.

The common structure for any news article could be distilled down to this 5W1H. They are What, Why, Who, When, Where and How. They can form either a pyramid or inverted pyramid structure to lead the readers and viewers into the details of the news while keeping them hooked.

Se Cai was skilled at writing codes but it was a completely different case when it came to writing script. Multiple times his works were rejected by Director Bai because they were too amateurish.

“This is such an important news… I shan’t fail now!”

Se Cai took a deep breath as he opened Microsoft Word. Sadly, there wasn’t even a news outline in his mind.

Se Cai’s fingers hung helplessly over the keyboard, he couldn’t even form the introduction.

He was struck by writer’s block. The more he panicked, the more his mind wandered! He couldn’t focus!

Se Cai stared nervously at the computer screen after he forced out the sentence, “A nerve-wrecking scene unfolded atop County S’ commercial building this morning…” He was stumped.

“Se Cai, if you can’t perform under pressure, here, use my script.”

Xu Ran poked his head out to stare at Se Cai’s blank screen and drawled gleefully, “After all, you don’t have any journalism educational background. Instead of drawing a blank, might as well use mine to save the news!”

Xu Ran came back earlier than Se Cai so he had an ample time to finish his script. Furthermore, even though he might not appear like it, he did grow up under the influence of his father and had a degree in journalism.

“Thanks but no thanks, I’m sure I’ll figure something out.”

Se Cai rejected him outright.

It was common practice for reporters to share their resources but Xu Ran’s actions from before had truly offended Se Cai.

“What to do?! Do I really need to ask Xu Ran for his help?”

Se Cai fidgeted in his seat and turned up to look at the clock. It was 5 past 4, he was running out of time…

Suddenly, a male voice announced itself in his mind. It was the Eye for News system!

“Does the host wish to expend 3 News Points to purchase a Script Writing Aid Unit?”

“Script Writing Aid Unit? Only 3 News Points?”

Se Cai couldn’t recall seeing this unit alongside other purchasable items and its price was undoubtedly suspicious.

“To aid the host on his journey, the system is offering a special account on this specific unit!”

The voice replied as if reading Se Cai’s mind.

“Purchase confirm!”

Se Cai agreed vehemently. This unit based on its name would come in handy and it only cost 3 measly News Points. Se Cai saw no harm in trying it out.

“Purchase successful. Activating Script Writing Aid… Searching database for relevant news articles. Found 7298 results, results are arranged in decreasing relevance…”

After the announcement, a long series of individual sentences appeared before Se Cai’s eyes.

These were all news headlines. All the datelines were unfamiliar to Se Cai.

He did a quick scan and realized these were all news articles on suicide. They were extremely similar to Se Cai’s own news.

And even a new reporter like Se Cai could tell every one of them was incredibly well written.

The system even came with a dictionary and thesaurus to explain the vocabulary that Se Cai didn’t understand.

“So this is the Script Writing Aid?! It’s akin to library research, just multiplied several times in terms of efficiency and speed. I’m sure this can help me complete a good script!”

Se Cai’s fingers danced over the keyboard with frightening speed. With the system’s aid, the words came naturally to him. It was as if writing was his second nature. In less than 5 minutes, he sighed in relief, closing the laptop.

“Director Bai, I’m done with the script, could you check it for me?”

“You’re done? So fast?!”

Director Bai was still waiting for the conversion to complete. He was shocked because this completely didn’t reflect Se Cai’s usual writing speed.

“It’s ready? Come pa.s.s it to me, I’ll mark it myself.”

Station Manager Wei said as he returned to the room.