At a TV news network, anchoring is being behind the desk, reading off the prompter, minimal interviewing.
Anjali Rao co-anchors for CNN’s prime-time show “World News Asia” and hosts “Talk Asia”. In this exclusive conversation with DNA Money’s Arcopol Chaudhuri, she shares the dynamics of anchoring in the age of News 2.0 and how international broadcasters are looking at Asian news anchors to make news more inclusive.
Excerpts:
In your career covering Star News Asia, Sky News and CNN, you’ve done a mix of anchoring and reporting. What similarities and differences have you observed in the two?
If you are doing a half-hour news show, reporting and anchoring can be very different. At a TV news network, anchoring is being behind the desk, reading off the prompter, minimal interviewing.
But if you are at a rolling news network like CNN or Sky News, reporting and anchoring are like two sides of the same coin. You just have to be up to date with all that is happening.
How did CNN happen to you?
CNN is something I’ve always wanted to do. The channel was looking for an Asian face with English as a first language.
The head of BBC in the UK had told me once, that if you can perform at Sky News and not drown, then you can do anything in this business. Basically I’d already done the hardest thing that was there.
How different was the experience at Sky News?
Anchoring at Sky News (London) is perhaps the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It is constant breaking news and one has to do at-the-drop-of-the-hat interviews. The longest notice period I was given to interview Gordon Brown was 14 seconds.
But then CNN is a little choosy and circumspect when it comes to breaking news, whereas in Sky, the yellow banner would pop up every few minutes.
As a face of the channel during major disasters like 9/11, Tsunami and Bali bombings, how did you maintain composure amidst the chaos?
I remember during 9/11, when I got into office, nine people were dead. When I left, after doing eight hours of breaking news, there were several thousands. Any anchor must remove oneself from the happenings and report.
Thankfully, Sky News had trauma counsellors in London for reporters who covered the Tsunami. Yes, there is huge demand put on news anchors in this age of rolling news. But on the other hand, someone has got to do it and the public needs to know. And I am a firm believer in that.
Apparently, American broadcasters are now looking for news anchors of Asian origin…
Sure, they are! And it has a relation to rising dominance of India and China in the global economy. With more people subscribing to channels like CNN they’d like to see news that they can relate to. It makes absolute sense commercially and from a social perspective as well. You don’t want to switch on TV in Bangladesh and see a blonde haired, blue eyed person reading news, do you?
Confess … how often do you goof-up on air and how do you cover it up?
The secret is to quickly put yourself in the viewer’s shoes and then they seem to identify with it. Like “Oh I’m just human … slip of the tongue!” (laughs).
But I am constantly goofing up! If you don’t know how to cover it and just move on, that’s the worst thing you could do. Within 5 minutes, the blooper would go up on YouTube!
Critics of 24x7 news TV observe that news has become entertainment. Comment.
I’ve seen so many people agree to that, but I think if news did not provide some sort of entertainment, why would people watch it? Every piece of news has to provide some entertainment and if that didn’t happen, we’d be getting zero ratings across the board.
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net
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