Having worked as a TV news reporter I found Charlie’s piece very amusing – some of us have long believed reporting like this is a rubbish way to do things!
But even if a journalist wants to tell stories in a more authentic and engaging way, the constraints of the so-called “house style” in many news organisations make it difficult to achieve.
What’s needed is a massive culture shift and a complete re-think of what we understand quality broadcast news reporting is.
And guess what? That’s exactly what’s happening, though you’d never believe it from what we’re still mostly seeing on TV.
Anyway, the new digital technologies, and shake up of “old school/old mainstream” journalism means new platforms and styles of “news” storytelling can now emerge.
Let’s hope fresh and appropriate ways of funding appear too, so we can kill off this dreadful formulaic reporting and delivery, and clear the way for more natural and interesting ways to treat stories and content.
Yeah, even this statement is starting to sound cliche, but the only TV “news” I really watch is The Daily Show. Besides that I rely on other individuals to collect information for me when it comes to television, then I catch the hightlights (or lowlights) on youtube or vimeo or some such thing. I don’t have the time to watch a half hour of crap to get one relevant report.
zach comment on January 28, 2010 8:44 pm:
I saw this on reddit earlier, so fucking hilarious.
Reply
Mari comment on January 28, 2010 11:00 pm:
haha – that’s great
and so true.
It’s like a template.
Reply
Ian Aleksander Adams reply on January 30th, 2010 3:21 pm:
yeah – a lot of stuff on mainstream news is really predictable. sort of sad.
Reply
Ian Aspin comment on February 4, 2010 7:47 am:
Having worked as a TV news reporter I found Charlie’s piece very amusing – some of us have long believed reporting like this is a rubbish way to do things!
But even if a journalist wants to tell stories in a more authentic and engaging way, the constraints of the so-called “house style” in many news organisations make it difficult to achieve.
What’s needed is a massive culture shift and a complete re-think of what we understand quality broadcast news reporting is.
And guess what? That’s exactly what’s happening, though you’d never believe it from what we’re still mostly seeing on TV.
Anyway, the new digital technologies, and shake up of “old school/old mainstream” journalism means new platforms and styles of “news” storytelling can now emerge.
Let’s hope fresh and appropriate ways of funding appear too, so we can kill off this dreadful formulaic reporting and delivery, and clear the way for more natural and interesting ways to treat stories and content.
Much love,
Ian Aspin. http://www.twitter.com/ianaspin
Reply
Ian Aleksander Adams reply on February 18th, 2010 5:46 am:
Yeah, even this statement is starting to sound cliche, but the only TV “news” I really watch is The Daily Show. Besides that I rely on other individuals to collect information for me when it comes to television, then I catch the hightlights (or lowlights) on youtube or vimeo or some such thing. I don’t have the time to watch a half hour of crap to get one relevant report.
Reply