Bencard, in a comment on a previous post, reminded me of a pet peeve: shouting newsreaders. You know? The Mike Enriquez types, and the Henry Omaga Diaz stylings.
Then, I also remembered that there are some countries in Europe where some newscasts have the newsreaders doing a strip tease as the broadcast progresses.
So apparently, we don’t have a monopoly on ridiculous. But the fact that, on opposite sides of the globe, station managers are choosing to adopt these strange methods gave me pause and awakened the non-purist in me. Now I understand that we have time-honored notions of how dignified news readers ought to be and all that. But I’ve just got to ask: is there really an established aesthetic for newsreading?
It is a changing world, after all, where people who watch the tube generally have the attention span of a fruit fly. SO, although personally I still prefer Coop’s laid back style of sober reporting, maybe – just maybe – even these annoying gimmicks serve a laudable purpose, i.e., to keep the audience interested enough to listen to the news.
Filed under: journalism, news, television, news, newsreaders, strip news
I don’t mind the shouting, but at least try to apply it appropriately. Mike Enriquez, reporting a death of a leader vs. reporting a city crime beat, same decibels, same facial expression!
Sigh, gone are the days of newscasters like Tina Monzon-Palma and Angelo Castro Jr.
Mikey: welcome to the smoking room! love the handle. btw, I think tina palma and angelo castro still do the news.
hi rom, thanks for the mention. maybe it’s o.k. to shout the news from time to time. afterall, commercial ads do that all the time – noticed how the volume automatically increases on your t.v. when it’s a commercial break?
what burns me up is that these newsshouters seem to do it more when they are reporting gossips, innuendos, bare speculations, and outright attacks against the government or administration. for instance, when some prophet-of-doom pundit with obvious partisan motive makes a dire prediction, this is broadcast with all the alarmist hysteria that the shouter could muster. it seems positive economic news, for one, doesn’t rate the same volume and excitement.
bencard: i attribute that to the pressure of commercialism. as the really really old saying goes, if it bleeds, it leads. Scandal and sensation sells. Good news hardly causes a ripple.