Decoding journalism jargon

As much as journalists need their expert sources not to use jargon in their communication, they use a lot of jargon themselves. Here are some of the terms you may hear when you’re working with journalists.

• Assignment editor: the equivalent of a booker for local news (see below). They reach out and schedule interviews with experts for the reporters working on a story.
• B-roll: a term used in TV journalism to refer to the background shots or generic video that accompanies the main story. For example, a TV story about vaccines may be accompanied by B-roll of a nurse giving a patient an injection.
• Background: an interview early in the reporting process to help the reporter learn general information on the topic. If you participate in a background interview, there’s a chance you won’t be quoted in the final story.
• Booker: in network news, a booker will identify sources, reach out, and get them scheduled for interviews.


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• Beat: a journalist’s specialty area. A beat can be as broad as “science and technology” or as narrow as news from a specific company. General assignment reporters don’t have a beat.
• Byline: the line under the headline that lists the author’s name–who the story is by. A freelancer may tell you where they have bylines as shorthand for where they’ve been published.
• Chyron: the graphic that appears on broadcast interviews that includes the interviewee’s name and affiliation.
• Copy: the written content of an article.
• Deck/Dek: a subheadline that provides additional context or information to supplement the headline
• Editor: the person who edits a story. The editor may also have been the one to assign the story and has significant influence over the overall direction of a piece.
• Embargo: a time and date that specific information can be released at. Some journal articles will be under embargo for a few days or weeks to allow journalists to write stories about them so they’re ready as soon as the journal article is published.
• Evergreen: a topic or story that’s always relevant or valuable.
• Executive producer: the TV equivalent of the editor. They check the reporter’s work and have the final say about stories and other decisions.
• File: submitting a print story for publication.
• Hit: the exact time you will be appearing on air for a live TV or radio interview.
• Lede/Lead: the beginning of a story that captures people’s interest and explains what the story is about.
• Live to tape: a broadcast news segment that is prerecorded as opposed to airing live.
• Kicker: the powerful and punchy end of a story; or, in TV news, the last fun story of the newscast
• Nut graf: a paragraph explaining the core of the story that follows the lede,
• Off the record: an attribution agreement where the information will not be quoted or attributed to the source in any way.
• On the record: the default attribution situation that means that what you say can be quoted and attributed to you. All interactions with a reporter are on the record unless there has been a specific agreement otherwise.
• Package: A reported story in a TV newscast. Packages are usually between 1:15 to 2 minutes long, and where you’ll get the most airtime as an expert source.
• Producer: in broadcast news, a person who is running things in the moment. They may be doing sound checks, checking your video quality, and letting you know when you’re on the air.
• Pull quote: a quote or sentence from an article that’s repeated in a different, larger font as a graphic design element that draws the readers’ attention or emphasizes key points.
• TK: text used in drafts that indicates specific information is “to come” and will be added later.