• Today's newsbelt

To watch these videos you need Windows Media Player.

David Weisbloom is the newsbelt producer today. The newsbelt is the part of the programme that features several short stories that aren't 'big' enough to merit a package on their own but which are nonetheless important and must be mentioned. If a breaking news story elbows out a main story at the last minute, the axed story will usually be rewritten and appear as part of the newsbelt.

On Channel 4's evening news there are normally two newsbelts, each consisting of about five or six stories and lasting about five or six minutes. The number of stories and duration of the newsbelt is very variable: if a live interview or live report overruns, the newsbelt will be cut accordingly.

Producers take turns working on the newsbelt and produce both the noon and evening versions. David talks about a typical story which will run in today's newsbelt.| Two boys have been murdered and a man is appearing in court charged with their murder. For legal reasons there is nothing more to say: the story is short but important and must therefore be reported.

To produce the package, David uses ENPS to find out what footage has come in about the murder. He discovers that there is a story from ITV's evening news from the previous day. Using the Browse video application on his computer, he accesses the story and edits short clips to illustrate his script. As he works, a message appears on his computer screen to say that the programme editor for the noon news wants him to produce a newsbelt story about the floods in Norway.