Reporters on the BBC News channel have been encouraged to look “sweaty and dirty” in order to inspire more trust from viewers.
Dressing as if they have just left “a fine dinner party” is off-putting to audiences and not authentic, according to Naja Nielsen, the BBC News digital director.
Albert Brooks plays a sweaty journalist in the 1987 film Broadcast News.
Viewers are more likely to trust journalists if they are looking dishevelled out in the field, she said.
The rolling news channel is in the process of being overhauled, with the domestic service being merged with BBC World News.
Outlining her vision for the channel, Nielson told staff: “It’s a bit like, being as sweaty and dirty as when we’re in the field is actually more trustworthy than if we look like we’ve just stepped out of an awards ceremony or a fine dinner party.”
BBC News digital director Naja Nielsen.Credit:Twitter
According to Deadline, the industry website, some presenters have taken this as a signal to relax the dress code and ditch smart attire.
Changes have become evident on the main news bulletins since the BBC moved to a new studio set-up. Tomasz Schafernaker has presented the weather in a jacket and T-shirt, while Mark Easton, the BBC’s home affairs editor, has paired his suit with trainers.
BBC foreign correspondents, such as Jeremy Bowen and Lyse Doucet, do not wear “fine dinner party” attire when reporting from war zones.
On the main BBC One bulletins, Clive Myrie has been anchoring programmes from Ukraine over the past year in addition to hosting from the London studio. During one report from Kyiv, he changed from an overcoat and scarf to a flak jacket after sirens began blaring.
Nielsen joined the BBC in 2019. She previously worked in the US and her native Denmark, and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, studying “what legacy media should learn and fear from the tech industry”.
She told staff that BBC News should film more reports on smartphones in an effort to engage the TikTok generation.
To illustrate the generational divide, she is said to have explained that her mother enjoys studio presentation but her children prefer the immediacy of reporting from the field.
Developing the BBC News TikTok account is one of the corporation’s main priorities for 2023.
The BBC News channel is due to relaunch in April, and will feature presenters standing in front of giant iPads to explain how news footage is verified.
As part of the merger, a number of veteran journalists have either chosen to quit or have been told that their services are no longer required.
A BBC source said: “Naja was making a general point about authenticity. She was not telling anyone what or what not to wear.”
There was some criticism of the merger when it was announced, with reports that 18 presenters would be asked to audition for just five jobs.
The new channel will be anchored from London in the day and evening, and from Washington DC and Singapore overnight. The channel will switch between an international and a domestic feed to let London editors respond to breaking news in the UK.
Telegraph, London
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