news

The fight against fake news

Any politician who uses the words ‘fake news’ to describe something they don’t like from their opponent should be assaulted verbally by people in their own party and fellow parliamentarians – we have to fight for language,” Nick Robinson told an RTS early-evening event discussing false news and alternative facts.

At the event in late February, chaired by former ITN chief executive Stewart Purvis, Robinson argued for the continuation of “impartiality as a legal requirement for television news”.

Jeremy Bowen: You don’t just go to wars for the sake of it

“It’s an all-consuming job which can be immensely satisfying, but it demands a great deal and you have to be prepared to make that commitment… Sounds awful [but] it’s a lot of fun and you get to travel and someone else pays for it.”

Bowen has become a household name during his 33 year career at the BBC, reporting from conflict zones across the world. He can still reel off the names of the hotels he’s stayed in while reporting from El Salvador, Bosnia, Croatia and Iraq. “I’m a bit obsessed with hotels,” he admits.

BBC News launches week of disability news coverage

Stories from across the UK and around the world will form the bedrock of the week, beginning on Monday 20th February,. Reports examine how different businesses are working to help disabled people and assess the true power of the purple pound on the global and UK economy.

BBC News will be reporting from Mumbai where a UK company has hired blind people as perfumers, and from Wales, where a farmer paralysed in a car accident has been able to return to work in a specially adapted tractor.

A full-time hobby: how to succeed in interactive design

Channel 4 News anchor Cathy Newman in the studio (Credit: Channel 4 News/ITN)

“My job involves any graphics for online, [as well as] design, any development, [and] any apps we choose to try and do. Pretty much everything,” he says.

Like many people in television, what started out as a hobby turned into a full-time career. The good thing about interactive design, unlike print, is that you “can make as many mistakes as you want and it doesn’t cost you. It’s entirely trial and error.”

The Guardian gets into bed with Vice

Viceland, Vice, Sky,

This is the first partnership of its kind that the Vice team have formed, and it will see a small team of Guardian journalists relocate to Vice’s offices in east London.

The Guardian intends to offer an experienced team to Vice, and in turn will be able to utilise Vice’s video production skills in delivering content to its millennial audience.

Vice CEO Shane Smith said “Real, fact-based, trusted news has never been more important and this partnership, I am very excited to say, will provide just that.”

The lost generation of TV news watchers

Carol Thompson, 26, spends her day battling to get the attention of a classroom of small children. She gets up at 6:15am, runs to work, starts preparing for meetings and adds her finishing touches to lesson plans. At 9:00pm she relaxes on the sofa. Watching the news is the last thing on her mind.

“I generally watch television that I have recorded, rather than watching anything live or simply watching things because they happen to be on,” explains Thompson, whose viewing choices tend towards All 4, iPlayer, ITV Hub and Sky Go.

Winners of the RTS Television Journalism Awards 2016 announced

Nima Elbagir, of CNN, was named Specialist Journalist of the Year. Picture by Richard Kendal

Sky News picked up the prize for News Channel of the Year for the second year running. The broadcaster also received awards for Daily News Programme of the Year for Sky News at Five and News Coverage – International for Sky News Programming’s report on Tunisia. Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford was also named Television Journalist of the Year.