News phrases

Beautiful creativity just shown by Philip Hayton on News 24; he linked into one item with 'as promised more on Tony Blair's visit to Iraq', and linked into the very next item with 'as promised more on that American probe which landed on Mars'.

Anyway, not strictly a news presenter thing, but I do hate the way BBC1 link into News 24.

They could say 'That it from us tonight on BBC1 but now we'll hand over to News 24 for the night', or 'do join us for Breakfast at 6 O'Clock, but now we join BBC News 24', or run an ident with no announcement, or just say something other than 'Through the night now on BBC1, with BBC News 24'. It's possibly the most badly constructed link ever used, and the fact that it's used virtually every night would suggest that it's even scripted, making it even worse.

I suspect it is more likely to be pre-recorded...

The same is not always true of the BBC nations where, if you're lucky, you might get something a little more creative and friendly!

Yes it usually is, but it's not the same recording every night. The evening announcer will often have committed the post-midnight links to mini disc.

Its quite intersesting comparing how the presenters on News 24 start the headline update at *.15:

Peter Dobbie - "...lets bring you right up to date with all the headlines at a quater past, as thats what we do here on News 24..."
Phillip Hayton - "Now lets check on the headlines at ___.."
Peter Sissons - "Its News 24, Its with me, Peter Sissons, Its time for the headlines..."
Big Al - "Lets just remind you of our main point..."
Matthew Ireallyamawally - "The time is exactly____, our main headlines here"

My personal peeves are:

"Goodnight, see you at the same time tomorrow." (they won't be seeing us; we'll be seeing them!)
"Tributes have been pouring in for......." (were they in water?)
"...at this moment in time...." (what's wrong with the word "Now"??)
"...and (player) got a brace...." (was he up on the stadium roof shooting pheasants?)
"... the opposition were steamrollered in a one-way game...." (if they were indeed steamrollered, they'd be in no fit state to defend!)

and from the Radio Scotland traffic reports:

"Traffic is steady going over the Forth Road Bridge this morning...." (you go across a bridge, going over it would result in an almighty splash and a big clear-up operation to retreive traffic from the bottom of the Firth of Forth!!)

Why use one word when 28 will do?

During the Soham trial I heard "the jury in the Soham murder trial has heard..." far too many times.

Kate Sanderson:
[to Natasha] Good Morning!
[to camera] Hello! Good Morning!
(far too overexcited)

An interesting thread here, made all the better for the inclusion of some CLASSIC lines... Reminds me of the 'Dam building project' once mentioned on American News, it was rather poorly written and easily misunderstood...

My personal thoughts though are that wherever possible, news presentation should always adopt a natural, almost conversational style. Of course there are arguments of grammar and there are plenty of splits over infinitives, but when all is said and done, I think that its far too easy to get hung up on the grammar and miss the whole point of what's being said... Personally I don't mind a railway station being called a train station... Its shorter and I would hope that we all know to what it would refer.

As for cliches.... or Journalese as its sometimes called in the business, some argue that it can damage the credibility of reports as some viewers or listeners actually subliminally 'switch off' once the 'settlement bid's' or 'crisis talks' start... but the jury's still out on that one.... Again Personally I do think that broadcast cliches do run the risk of adding a 'Sun' style to what's broadcast and yes lets ditch I say, but thats easier said than done. And as for starting a sentence with a conjuctive.....

(Ps.. anyone who wants to see what the corporation think... see http://www.bbctraining.co.uk/onlineCourse.asp?tID=5487&cat=3 )

Just got a new one:

"Well we've got to keep this in perspective..."

What Annoys me:

Often used in Newsnight-

More on that story later!

Used everywhere else-

Now its time to join Michael Fish with the weather
We're getting this breaking news in from Reuters
Now it's time to join our newsrooms around the country, goodbye! (5 minutes later) Now it's time for Look East with Stewart White & Carol Bundock.

When asked a question by the studio anchor, an annoying tendency is for reporters to respond with
"That's a very interesting question to ask."