Broadcast Journalism, 6th Edition

29 Television news presenters

 

‘Certainly, presenters are in the front line. They get all the plaudits when it goes right and all the brickbats when it goes wrong. It’s tough when others lose the scripts, the Autocue goes down, the researchers have got the wrong interview, your information is incorrect and the lighting explodes in the studio, but you still have to plough on holding the show together.’

– JANET TREWIN, JOURNALIST AND TV PRESENTER, FROM: PRESENTING ON TV AND RADIO

I always get asked what presenters say when they shuffle their papers and the lights go down, although they haven’t gone down for almost a decade. Sometimes we say nothing and sometimes we make a deliberate quip, half-hoping the viewer will hear it. Once a co-presenter ...