Terry's New Job (Not Really)

Meet the new news presenter for the English bulletin on the Sri Lankan national channel Rupavahini. Don't I wish! Stay tuned for more on my visit to the newsroom.

Remembering Walter Cronkite

Walter Cronkite came to Stanford University to speak when I was a sophomore in the mid 1970s. After his talk, I introduced myself and told him I was thinking about going into wire service reporting. He took time to sit down on a bench and advise me that wire service training was the best a journalist could have. He was right! I later became the campus stringer for the Associated Press and after graduation, worked for UPI. I was a multiplatform journalist in print and broadcasting waaay before it was cool and it led to a job in television reporting. I thank Mr. Cronkite for the kind words that inspired my career.
On the day he died, I interviewed NBC's Brian Williams for my upcoming book. Brian spoke about growing up in a household where Cronkite was required viewing before dinner. He said it was the best textbook anyone could have. I couldn't agree more. It's hard to believe that powerful voice is gone, but his example will live on through the many people he inspired.

Anchor Blues

This picture makes it hard to tell that the TVM news studio is about the size of a large walk-in closet. The front of the camera is only two feet away from the set and behind it there is barely enough room for the camera operator. The prompter is so close that you see the anchors' eyes shifting back and forth when they read. The desk is a straight line and the result is a comical lineup when they have guests on the set, not to mention that they end up being shot in profile like "talking ears." The picture you see is what passes for the "wide" bump shot of the set. There is actually a whole second level to the set, but you can't get back far enough to get it in the shot.
Across the hall is a spacious studio with a set for current affairs programs. We will immediately move the news set to the bigger studio.
Harder to fix is the fact that people aren't exactly standing in line for anchor jobs. The job title "anchor" doesn't exist in this system. Everyone here is a "newscaster" who is interchangeable as a reporter, anchor, producer or camera person. It's considered a low-paid stepping stone on the way up to a higher position off-air, so many of the newscasters are part-time news readers or kids who try to do everything and end up being good at nothing. There is a schedule, but it's not unusual for someone to find out they're anchoring 30 minutes before the show. There is little video in the show, few packages or VO/SOTS, and anchoring often means reading five minute blocks of copy on camera without a break or a chance to catch your breath. The IFB's main function is to allow people to yap in the anchors' ears while they are reading, demanding they instantly fix mistakes in the copy that should have been edited out before they went on the air. The result is that most of them look scared, confused and unprofessional.
One of the shining exceptions is the woman you see here: Heena. She has that rare ability to communicate with the camera. She is a leader in the newsroom, functioning as an unofficial deputy assistant news director when she isn't reporting or anchoring. No college education, learned her skills on her last job in the programming department. She is a 28-year-old single mom with a young daughter. People get married early here, but they also get divorced early. Heena has family members who watch her daughter during the insane number of hours she works at the station. Sixteen hour days are pretty normal around here, six days a week, with some also working on their one day off.