Standup

In broadcast journalism, a standup (sometimes "stand-up" or "piece to camera") is the portion of a packaged news report in which the reporter appears on screen speaking directly into the camera, typically from the scene of the story. It is one of the building blocks of a television news package, alongside voiceover narration, b-roll footage, natural sound, and soundbites from interviewees.

Standups serve several functions. They establish that the reporter is physically present at a location, lending credibility and immediacy to the story. They are often used as bridges between two segments of a report — for example, transitioning from describing one side of a protest to the other — or as the closing tag, where the reporter signs off with their name, outlet, and dateline (e.g., "Jane Smith, reporting from Brussels"). A standup placed in the middle of a package is sometimes called a "bridge standup," while one at the end is a "closer" or "tag."

Editorially, standups are useful when no compelling visuals exist for a particular point, when the reporter needs to demonstrate scale or geography by gesturing at the environment, or when on-camera authority is required to convey analysis. War correspondents, for example, frequently use standups against a backdrop of damaged buildings to underscore the conditions they are reporting from.

The technique has been a staple of television news since the medium's expansion in the 1950s and 1960s and remains central to network correspondents at outlets such as the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and Reuters TV. In the digital era, standups have migrated to social-media verticals: shorter, vertically framed standups are now produced for platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

For Model UN delegates and IR researchers, recognizing standups is useful when evaluating media framing: the location, body language, and script of a standup can signal an outlet's editorial stance or the access a reporter has been granted by authorities.