Is the age of TV news gimmicks over?

So, News at Ten is to make a "triumphent" return. ITV News is going "back to basics". Five News is getting a desk. Sky News Active barely gets a mention these days. Sky News seldom leave the desk except for Afternoon Live. In fact, just about everyone on every TV news programme seems to sit down now.

Have the news providers finally realised that viewers want news, not gimmicks? Hard journalism, not citizen journalism? Or are they just passing cost-cutting off as reform?

It is a shame that we can't have style and substance, yet noone seems to have got this balance right. We seem to be going from one extreme (light and fluffy, gimmicky) to the other (boring).



Or is it just me? Text us with your views, or hit the red button now.

I think you're probably quite right in your observations to some extent. The BBC still addresses the casual style of news presentation with Huw Edwards perched on the desk itself to trail the 10 o'clock news. Then there is the actual quality of reporting too at some points within the BBC, the Six o'clock being the worst/best example (depending on your prefered consumption of current affairs).

I think because the UK has now been exposed to the digital age for a decade or more now, broadcasters are less likely to push it upon the public as the new idea. The recent bbc.co.uk/news ad is an example of the BBC spending it's promotional segment of funds on Online material as aposed to beefing up the domestic national operations. With this strong transition to up-to-the-second news online, the BBC may now internally be forced to look at the content and style of the BBC National and News 24 services and see if they can draw a very clear line between tabloid journalism and hard hitting, facts only reporting.

I would say within the next 5 years one of the heavyweight news broadcasters, BBC, ITN or BSkyB will take the leap in implenting something concrete to a programme/channel. Whether it steer more towards the recent growing trend of casual, relaxed reporting or aligns itself more with the style of the last 50 years remains to be seen.

I'll finish with an interesting thought I had not so long back. People growing up in the last few decades have become all too familiar with the style of reporting from say The Sun, and The Daily Star, not only do they know it exists, but chances are they also probably consume it. The television and radio programmers have to really catch up with that new demand, an ageing population may want their Newsnight, but soon a heck of a lot more people entering retirement will be far more content with the ligher, fluffier Six and ITV's offerings.

In the case of ITV News it is almost certainly cost-cutting spin.

I think that presentation and content have to be separated, and accessibility has to be separated from dumbing down, and programmes have to be tailored to audiences.

It is entirely possible to do serious news with new forms of presentation, explaining complex subjects with non-patronising background context in a form that is still engaging and interesting. That is what news producers and presenters are actually paid to do. Equally well crafted simple intros and traditional films can do the job equally well on different subjects and on shows aimed at different audiences.

It is very easy to sit a reporter behind a desk, reading a verbose cue that assumes the audience know every previous twist and turn of a story, linking into a VT that is basically just reporter track and wallpaper pictures, and no doubt repeats most of what the presenter said in his 30" intro.

Equally it isn't that difficult to make your presenters wander around the studio, never standing still, whilst reading cues that assume you have the attention span of a goldfish and the general knowledge of a 5 year old, linking in to overly produced VT with reconstructions, graphics appearing in empty space next to a reporter (could be a blackboard, could be a brick wall, could be a supermarket conveyor, could be anything that looks a bit odd before the words appear...), or rubbish archive VT in multiple boxes to disguise any lack of original footage...

What is not easy is writing a clear introduction to a story that doesn't repeat the contents of the report, but gives you enough relevant background to put it into context. Whether the intro uses graphics full-frame over a seated presenter who looks comfortable seated, or graphics in a screen with a presenter comfortable standing and naturally interacting with them I don't much care. Equally finding a way of telling the story clearly with new pictures, archive, graphics or production devices that actually work for the viewer is not easy. However that is what producers and presenters get paid to do - though increasingly they don't have the time or space to be creative to do this.

Everything in news goes round like a big wheel. We'll have "basic" for a while now... plain blue background, inset window, presenters sitting... remind you of the Six days with Sue Lawley..... and in a couple of years it'll all be flash bang wallop once again. Look at regional news... everyone was behind a desk in the 90s, then in came the sofas, and now the desks are coming back.
And yes... as for ITN's "Back to Basics", well they haven't got much of a choice after sacking most of the gfx department.
The only one not to be affected is GMTV. And god... doesn't it show.

I don't think its a wheel of sorts - ITV just cut so many costs they have had to go back to basics, Sky have John Ryley in charge which is trouble in anyone's language, five have so many rebrands that a change is expected.
The BBC have had to change because they either fib about programmes or the Daily Mail is waiting in the wings to savage auntie for allowing a woman to a) present b) show an inoffensive part of their body or c) any other reason they can find that week.
It's not the news that's changing, it's society!

Here at Granada we actually had a This Morning style set for a few years. Are regional news programs going back to being presented from behind a desk?

I can only speak for what I know and when you have Mr Murdoch saying 'I'll be paying a greater interest' to your channel, that can only mean one thing...

There's nothing new in TV sadly.
Problems with cutaways? a White flash will do!
Bit boring subject? Let's use a split screen - I first saw in a 60's feature film Grand Prix - but with you Avid is almost too easy to do.
As for standing up? I could never figure out how a minor news channel like 5 could cause such a sea change in News programmes. And now it's happening again over the rediculous noddy discussion/self publicity.