Although it may seem pointless at times, to be fair I do actually like having the presenter on location - and arguably no one is better at anchoring on location than Mark Austin - it is really how he's made his name.
Is it? I thought he made his name as Africa Correspondent. And there are plenty who can anchor better on location.
Although it may seem pointless at times, to be fair I do actually like having the presenter on location - and arguably no one is better at anchoring on location than Mark Austin - it is really how he's made his name.
Is it? I thought he made his name as Africa Correspondent. And there are plenty who can anchor better on location.
As a newsreader though the War in Iraq was the making of him when he anchored on location for the duration.
Jon Snow is perhaps the only other person I'd say really anchors well on location. Emily Maitless is about as heavyweight as the Teletubbies, while the likes of Huw Edwards look too uncomfortable out of the newsroom to be in the more reporting roll.
That's why Mark Austin excels at anchoring on location - he's still seems to have those crucial reporting qualities too.
With the added advantage, of course, that Jon Snow actually adds something to the programme when he does go abroad, and doesn't just jet off to every news event all over the world.
What was the point of sending Mark Austin all the way to Virginia to present tonight's news? Do ITV seriously think an experienced reporter like John Irvine, who is living in the US, cannot do as good a job as Mark Austin? I really don't understand ITV's fascination with sending Mark Austin all over the place to anchor about 10 minutes per bulletin? It can't even be justified by saying he's doing other things, as there's no News Channel now. He literally presents for about 20 minutes per day when he's on these jaunts.
because that was the deal when he was given the job and he's an experienced overseas correspondent.
But what does it
add
to the output that a reporter couldn't? What difference does it make having Austin on location rather than in the studio? It may be in his contract, but I want to know what value it has.
it's a big story... two reporters can cover twice the ground, talk to twice the number of people, get twice as much information to pulp down into understandable chunks.
What was the point of sending Mark Austin all the way to Virginia to present tonight's news? Do ITV seriously think an experienced reporter like John Irvine, who is living in the US, cannot do as good a job as Mark Austin? I really don't understand ITV's fascination with sending Mark Austin all over the place to anchor about 10 minutes per bulletin? It can't even be justified by saying he's doing other things, as there's no News Channel now. He literally presents for about 20 minutes per day when he's on these jaunts.
because that was the deal when he was given the job and he's an experienced overseas correspondent.
But what does it
add
to the output that a reporter couldn't? What difference does it make having Austin on location rather than in the studio? It may be in his contract, but I want to know what value it has.
it's a big story... two reporters can cover twice the ground, talk to twice the number of people, get twice as much information to pulp down into understandable chunks.
Well, of the ITV News bulletins I saw today, it was mainly Mark reading a few pre-prepared scripts and talking to John Irvine for the latest on the shootings.
I think it's worth having the anchor there. Like on yesterdays lunchtime news re: the security scare they had... Mark was anchoring and John Irvine was filming the scare and only just managed to rush over to where Mark was, out of breath!
Re: Jon Snow being better than Mark Austin on location - why? I think both are good. Jon was incidently already in America - C4 didn't send him there to cover the shootings. I prefer Alex Thomson on 4 than Snow for the 'out and about' stuff though.
"As Lib Dem secretary she forced Jeremy Paxman to apologise for suggesting that Charles Kennedy had a drink problem - before moving to ITV News and winning awards for reporting that Charles Kennedy had a drink problem!"