ABSTRACT
The camera smoothly glides across the studio floor while, in the case of the ITN Lunchtime News, a male voice-over sternly intones: ‘From the studios of ITN (.) the news (.) with Nicholas Owen and Julia Somerville.’ Both newsreaders are situated behind a shared desk, calmly organizing their scripts. Serving as a backdrop for them is what appears to be a dimly lit (in cool blue light) newsroom, empty of people but complete with desks, computer equipment, and so forth. Similarly, for the News at Ten, as the male voice-over declares: ‘From ITN (.) News at Ten (.) with Trevor McDonald’, the newsreader appears in shot seated behind a desk, typing on an invisible keyboard with one hand as he collects a loose sheaf of papers with his other one (which is also holding a pen). Whether it is ITN or the BBC, it is the institution behind the newsreader which is responsible for producing the news; it is the very ‘impersonality’ of the institution which, in ideological terms, is to be preserved and reaffirmed by the ‘personality’ of the newsreader.
