View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. News
March 15, 2010

Kate Adie: 24-hour culture creates ‘showbizzy’ news programmes

By admin

Veteran BBC war correspondent Kate Adie has criticised the culture of 24-hour news channels by suggesting they reduced coverage of world events into “showbizzy” events, according to a report.

Speaking at the Emirates Airline Literature Festival in Dubai, Telegraph.co.uk reported that Adie launched an attack on “young and fluffy” looking newsreaders where looks counted for more than journalistic skill.

She said: “It is no good your reporters bringing back a two-minute distillation of the crucial events. Nowadays they have to graze across all those things and they have to stand and speculate a bit.”

Adie said this style of reporting dragged reporters away from frontline newsgathering and left viewers short-changed.

She added: “It is becoming more showbizzy, to be perfectly honest.

“What you get with the news programmes is that news is becoming much less formal.

“This is how it used to be: there would be two people sitting behind a desk. There would be a man in a smart suit and here, a much younger woman. This is the pattern all around the world.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

“Now you tune into several of the British channels – and we are not the only ones doing it – and off they go, marching around the studio and legs get crossed.

“News is moving into the entertainment world. It is becoming friendly, cosy and appealing and you have newsreaders empathising.

“This is not down to journalists. It is because news is being used almost wholly as an entertainment vehicle. It is not clear where this is going.

“Why are all the women in TV news the way they are? It is the insistence on the young, the fluffy.”

Topics in this article : , ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network