News presenter

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"Anchorman" redirects here. For other uses, see Anchorman (disambiguation).

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ITV newscaster Mark Austin.

A news presenter is, broadly speaking, a person that presents a news show on television, radio or the Internet. The term is not commonly used by people in the industry as they tend to use more descriptive, and sometimes country-specific, terms. Examples include "newsreader", "newscaster", and "news anchor".

[edit] Different roles

[edit] Newsreader

A newsreader is a presenter whose role it is to read the news. In modern times, technology enables journalists to broadcast from relevant locations, reducing the role of the central presenter to that of a newsreader. The term is the most common one for a news presenter outside of the United States and Canada.

Since the 1980s some broadcasters have moved away from using newsreaders, many of whom were simply actors who delivered a script written by others and who played no part in news gathering. Stations such as the BBC and RTÉ instead moved to use newscasters.

[edit] Newscaster

A newscaster is a presenter of a news bulletin who is himself or herself a working journalist and news gatherer, and a participant in compiling the script to be delivered in a news bulletin.

The American use of the term is presumed to have been coined (or borrowed from English) in the 1980s to distinguish active journalists from newsreaders, the previous type of news presenter.

However in the UK, ITN's presenters are referred to as newscasters (and have been since the 1950s), whilst those working at the BBC are called newsreaders.

[edit] News anchor

A news anchor is a television personality who presents material prepared for a news program and at times must improvise commentary for live presentation. The term is primarily used in the United States and Canada. Many news anchors are also involved in writing and/or editing the news for their programs. Sometimes news anchors interview guests and moderate panels or discussions. Some provide commentary for the audience during parades and other events.

The term anchor (sometimes anchorperson, anchorman, or anchorwoman) was coined by CBS News producer Don Hewitt. CBS cites its first usage as being on July 7, 1952 to describe Walter Cronkite's role at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. According to Hewitt, the term was in reference to the "anchor leg" of a relay race.

[edit] Criticism

A common dogma among the general public equates "news" and "news media" with "journalism", and this typically carries over to news anchors as well — associating media personalities with journalists — much to the consternation of many print journalists. In the current age of mass media and consolidation, news anchors tend to be viewed as belonging to the infotainment or news trades, rather than to the journalism profession. There is a spectrum and scale however — the quintessential national news anchors from early days of television news tended to come from experienced backgrounds in print journalism. Since then, television news has largely been an entity in its own right, where print and television journalism can be viewed as divergent trades.

Adding to the distinction between journalists and anchors and reporters are "human interest", personality, or celebrity news stories, which typically are directed by marketing departments based on a demographic appeal and audience share. Its commonly accepted that anchors are also media personalities, who may even be considered celebrities. The very nature of corporate network news requires its media personalties to use their public appeal to promote the network's investments, just as network broadcasts themselves (morning shows, TV news magazines) schedule self-promotional stories, in addition to advertising. Critics might go so far as to view anchors as a weak link in the news trade, representing the misplacement of both the credit and the accountability of a news journalism organization —hence adding to a perceived erosion of journalistic standards throughout the news business. (See yellow journalism.)

In popular culture, the corporate news anchor is viewed as an archetype of the status quo and bland superficiality of corporate news media. As public people, they tend to receive an excess measure of social (and financial) reward for the hard work of "true" journalists behind the scenes. North American news anchors are frequently imitated and lampooned people who are hired more for their looks on TV than for any skill at journalism or intelligence. This kind of character is the subject of long running gags on Saturday Night Live, SCTV, and the UK-produced The Muppet Show and the subject of sitcoms like Mary Tyler Moore, Murphy Brown, and NewsRadio.