WO
Thinking about just how much journalism has changed over the last decade alone, being the TV Forumer that I am, it got me thinking: just what will TV news be like in another decade’s time? Will there still be a place for the traditional bulletins on the main five channels? Will all news be shouted by a panel of guests? Will Twitter have absorbed all news organisations? (Nothing like the serious questions, eh? )
A while back, I read an interview with a guy called Wim De Vilder, one of the top news anchors at the VRT in Belgium, who said that he would be very surprised if the newscasts he presents still exist in their current form ten years from now. He also said that he believes people will still turn to the TV for important breaking news, and that he expects news anchors to become more like commentators on the day’s news.
I find this interesting because news bulletins have obviously had a place on TV channels the world over for decades, and whilst the styles of presenting and reporting may have changed dramatically throughout the decades, the basic idea of a fixed half-hour slot (or thereabouts) where the day’s events are reported has not.
Now, I’m not a journalist, nor do I work in TV, so I won’t be anywhere near as well versed in the whys and wherefores of news production as some reading this. If anyone reading this does happen to be in the industry, I would be especially interested in your perspectives on all this.
I’ll start the ball rolling with a few of my own (perhaps rank amateur) predictions - as always, they could turn out to be completely wrong:
* BBC/ITV still produce their respective news bulletins, but perhaps fewer of them than you see now. Channel 5 manages to ditch them altogether.
* The BBC News Channel no longer exists - or if it does, it’s been reduced to a sort of Euronews-style carousel of reports playing one after another.
* Sky News still exists, albeit in a somewhat reduced form to now. A looser style of presentation has gradually been introduced (think Franceinfo).
* Traditional TV news is far less important than in 2018, as the lines between TV and online continue to blur even further.
A while back, I read an interview with a guy called Wim De Vilder, one of the top news anchors at the VRT in Belgium, who said that he would be very surprised if the newscasts he presents still exist in their current form ten years from now. He also said that he believes people will still turn to the TV for important breaking news, and that he expects news anchors to become more like commentators on the day’s news.
I find this interesting because news bulletins have obviously had a place on TV channels the world over for decades, and whilst the styles of presenting and reporting may have changed dramatically throughout the decades, the basic idea of a fixed half-hour slot (or thereabouts) where the day’s events are reported has not.
Now, I’m not a journalist, nor do I work in TV, so I won’t be anywhere near as well versed in the whys and wherefores of news production as some reading this. If anyone reading this does happen to be in the industry, I would be especially interested in your perspectives on all this.
I’ll start the ball rolling with a few of my own (perhaps rank amateur) predictions - as always, they could turn out to be completely wrong:
* BBC/ITV still produce their respective news bulletins, but perhaps fewer of them than you see now. Channel 5 manages to ditch them altogether.
* The BBC News Channel no longer exists - or if it does, it’s been reduced to a sort of Euronews-style carousel of reports playing one after another.
* Sky News still exists, albeit in a somewhat reduced form to now. A looser style of presentation has gradually been introduced (think Franceinfo).
* Traditional TV news is far less important than in 2018, as the lines between TV and online continue to blur even further.