ABSTRACT
This chapter indicates the impossibility of attributing sobriety to sport, where presenters regularly become hysterical with excitement, but also because news, current affairs and documentary are all presented in a much less formal way. Newsreaders 'embody the news provider, and so need to be perceived as objective rather than partisan' this means avoiding both favouring an identifiable political position and being seen to consider some outcomes to news events more desirable than others. Documentary is a persistent feature of both British and Australian television; indeed few film documentaries are seen other than on television or funded if they cannot appear there. The presenters, more often called commentators to indicate their subsidiary and voice-over role, are skilled, sought after and the prominent well-paid, but they are emphatically not the principal personalities viewers are interested in. The way that golf tournaments run causes particular problems for presenters and commentators because of an asymmetry in the actual competition and its visual presentation.
