ABSTRACT

In 1955, the newly launched Independent Television News (ITN) daringly featured visible ‘newscasters’ instead of the invisible ‘newsreaders’ favoured by the BBC; in 1975, Angela Rippon became the first woman to read the news on a regular basis; in 1997, Five’s Kirsty Young stood in front of a studio desk instead of sitting respectfully behind it; in 1999, ITV shifted its flagship late evening news from ten o’clock where it had been firmly held in place by the ‘bongs’ of Big Ben for decades. Each of these challenges to the patterned regularity of broadcast news caused a public sensation.