Learning The Tools Of The trade From The Horse’s Mouth

On October 4 2005, a workshop on anchoring for television was organised by the Media Studies: Film and Television wing of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Calcutta. The session took place at the Ritwik Hall of the university's Asutosh Siksha Prangan, College Street.

In his introductory lecture, Dr. Soumendra Nath Bera, a reader of the host department said that in the modern television world, the news reporter and the news anchor have merged into the newcaster.

In his discourse with the students, Jagannath Basu from Doordarshan emphasized on clarity, meaningful pause, correct application of stress and emphasis as the key aspects of newscasting and anchoring in the audio-visual media. His advice for the budding television anchors was a no to smoking and drinking, especially before presentation of a programme. Laying stress on the projection of one's voice, as opposed to shouting before the microphone, he highlighted following the house style and the standardized language, and the ability to read different types of handwriting as some of the other key aspects of television anchoring. Onscreen appearance, including colour of dress, glitter of ornaments, application of make-up, as also state of health and fitness of the anchor, are vital determinants of the viewer's response, he added. He also laid stress on the knowledge base for enhancing speaking ability, gauging the body language of the interviewee and understanding the psychology of the target audience, as vital ingredients for successful anchoring.

The other guest speaker for the occasion was Anjan Bandopadhyay from Akash Bangla. As opposed to the general notion that the entertainment value of television newscasting has increased, he was of the opinion that the degree of involvement of the newscaster has enhanced these days. He urged the budding media persons not to copy anyone blindly, but to develop one's own style through adopting the latest trend and modifying it through one's unique innovations. Since each person is different from the other, he was of the opinion, that a media house should not have the same style for all anchors. If the level of acceptability is high, the same anchor can present different types of programmes, he said. Pointing out that field journalism is vibrant, whereas studio journalism is composed, he was quick to mention that basically, journalism has remained same, the changes having come up in presentation and the technicalities.