Getting the tone right
I talked, in my last blog, about interactivity with our audience and I mentioned the importance of getting a sense of how our viewers are responding to a story.
This morning was a case in point.
A major terrorist plot had been foiled - we were told. There was chaos at some of Britain's airports, which was bound to get worse. And people were understandably worried.
We 'rolled' on the story from 6am, when we went on air, reporting on the unfolding developments and taking a break only for the briefest summary of other news, the usual regional bulletins and a short weather forecast.
Although we didn't read out emails or texts - the fact that our viewers were worried was hardly 'news' in itself - the traffic coming in from viewers did help to inform both the tone of our coverage and also the direction it took. We had a sense of the some of the questions our viewers wanted answered (some of which we'll return to tomorrow) and we also heard from people caught up in the chaos.
Glancing through the emails and texts at one point, I was also reminded of the challenge we face with repetition.
New viewers are turning on all the time - they want information. Viewers who've been with us for a while want new information, but they don't want to hear the same things repeated endlessly. There were a few people who told us to "'move on" and talk about something else. There were others who told us we'd provided a really coherant flow of essential information, for which they were grateful.
I hope we got the balance right.
Comments
Excellent coverage this morning on a breaking story. I rarely tune in before going to work, but the two presenters this morning did a very good job on what is obviously a breaking news story with little real information available at the time. Good job.
Getting the tone right....
How do you decide which term to use for the various murderous armed groups around the world? A quick glance at today's news gives:
terrorists - the UK/US airline bomb plot; also "terrorist threat" and Islamic fascists";
insurgents - Iraq and Thailand;
militants - Kashmir and Pakistan, some references to Hezbollah;
rebels - Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ethiopia;
guerrillas - Colombia and some references to Hezbollah;
gunmen - Palestinian Territory and Mexico;
fighters - Palestinian Territory;
extremists - Kazakhstan, sometimes qualified as "Islamic".
There are also "nationalists".
Sometimes the groups are identified - Hezbollah and the Taleban for example.
Whatever they're called, they all kill people....
i thought the coverage was fantastic and struck the right balance and even though the news was repeated it was never boring.
the coverage struck the right balance, and it is understandable the repeating bits, even when the isn't breaking news the news repeats its top stories. I tend to tune in a different times depending on if I have College or am going out so I tend to catch repeated news.
On the subject of lost baggage why do you choose Alice Beer as a so called expert on travel, did she work for an Airline and experience the numerous departments of Heathrow/Gatwick working for BEA/British Airways as I did for 20 years?
Some expert!