The news agenda varies from station to station in both the style of presentation and the type of stories selected - with plenty of accusations these days of dumbing-down. To investigate that TMC presents a comparison of the start of the main news bulletins broadcast by terrestrial stations on 29 June 1999.
BBC One’s Nine O’Clock News
Top Stories: Northern Ireland, Serbs, Passports
Not much levity here in the recently rebranded BBC News. Headlines spoken uninterrupted before titles; music full of surge and time pips. Seems modern yet these features are not new, the newsroom backing least of all.
ITV Evening News
Top Stories: Northern Ireland, Louise Woodwood’s parents, Wimbledon Rain, Boy’s search
Mix of the serious and human interest stories here as might be expected, although it later turned out that the search by the boy for his father was a hoax. Legacy titles of Big Ben from the News at Ten days, but the colours are bright rather than sombre. But is rain at Wimbledon news?
Channel 4 News
Top Stories: Passports
A real minimalist approach to headlines followed by a stomach-churning twisty animation. Still their newsreaders have legs.
Channel 5 News
Top Stories: Louise Woodward’s parents, car tests, beagle farm, Wimbledon rain & technology
Channel 5 came along trying to present the news in a brighter fashion. Well they failed to mention any of the heavier stories of the day. The influence though of the colours and pace should be clear having looked at the others. A surprising cluster of technology features may be less expected.
And finally…
Dumber? Inconclusive.
ITN still leads with the same story as the BBC with what would have been its most watched version of the news.
Presentation more up-beat?
Yes, although these headline fragments are not necessarily the whole story. Compare with this News at Ten beginning from the mid 1980s for a comparison (857 KB).
Good Night. (Shuffles papers.)
