10/06/2011 Newswatch

BBC's economic reporting is under attack, and just how difficult is

Welcome to NewsWatch. Later in the programme, many of you are critical

of the performance of BBC newsreaders. Could you do any

better? We set one viewer that challenge.

Before that, complaints about BBC News come from all quarters,

including Number 11 Downing Street this week. Here is George Osborne

speaking to Sarah Montague on the Today programme on Radio 4 on

Monday. I have not yet heard a single news bulletin that says

400,000 new jobs have been created over the last year. Last week there

was a disappointing manufacturing survey, it was on the news. There

is a more encouraging one today, not on the news. What I am asking

for is a bit of balance. It is certainly true there has been

plenty of bad economic news reported lately, so should the BBC

just, well, cheer up? # Something as in life are bad.

# They can always make you mad. The inflation rate has jumped to

4.4%, well ahead of average pay rises.

# Don't grumble, give a whistle! Today's figures show that total UK

unemployment is at its highest since 1994.

# Always Look On the Bright Side of Life.

Rising energy prices, higher VAT and a major cut in government

spending will all contribute to a very weak UK economy this year.

But are those stories a fair reflection of BBC output or a fair

reflection of the state of the economy? Many NewsWatch

correspondents seem to agree with the Chancellor that the

corporation's economics coverage concentrates too much on bad news

and negative statistics. A And Peter Ditchfield from nearby

The editor of BBC News' Business and economic unity Jeremy Hillman

wrote in response to the Now, it may not surprise you to

hear that we receive numerous comments about newsreaders and

presenters. How they speak, what they wear, whether they stand up or

sit down. Matthew Webb from Point taken. But on Monday's news

that six, Sophie Raworth took to her feet not just at the top of the

bulletin but in the middle. Scientists may be a step closer to

answering some of the big questions about the origins of the universe.

Steams you debt-equity misusing the giant CERN particle accelerators

say they have made a breakthrough in their study of antimatter.

Tricky and controversial business, clearly, and when you get onto news

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 77 seconds

presenters' delivery, the critics You may or may not be able to guess

which specific presenters were being referred to. Another viewer

who wrote to us with criticism was Anne Chadwick from Stoke-on-Trent.

So we asked her if she could do any better.

Thank you very much. I first contacted NewsWatch because

I watch a lot of news and I thought the presenters could probably talk

a bit more fluently than they do. They make it look so easy most of

the time, especially the really famous ones that everybody knows

who do the big bulletins. When things don't go as well as they

would like it shows up more. I think I would like to know exactly

how difficult it is. Lovely to meet you. She is joined by Ian Blandford,

who is that -- has coach knew was presenters on BBC News and

elsewhere and will give our novice some tips. -- who has coached in

news presenters. I make a living from helping presenters look as

natural as they do. We say and be yourself, but read the autocue,

sometimes they will get a glimpse and sometimes they will never have

seen it, but it needs to come -- sound like it is coming from their

heads and is their story. And they have all sorts of noise going on in

their ears. How do you cope having someone's voice in your ear when

you are trying to read of a screen and somebody is saying something

completely different? Can you do this? It is a bit like that. We set

her three tasks of the sort news presenters perform every bulletin.

Your first challenge is to take this script, read it yourself and

then read it took the audience. Hello, and welcome to this special

edition of the news with me, Anne Chadwick. It has been revealed that

prayers at -- presenting television news programmes is not as hard as

it looks. One anonymous presenter said, it is a doddle, anyone can do

it. The next thing we will do is I will go and be a foreign

correspondent somewhere in the Middle East, it is the kind of

story that happens a lot. I pop up, you will not know too much about

the story, you can find out what is going on. Now we will go to our

Middle East correspondent, Ian Blandford, in Syria. Can you hear

me? Good afternoon. What is going on where you are? The Middle East

seems to be like a set of toppling dominoes at the moment... Rather

cruelly, we are about to pretend a live link has gone down, which

always provides a challenge to a presenter. With the local people is

so strong... HIGH PITCHED NOISE. am sorry, we appear to have lost

Ian, but in the next lot of news, Ian -- Nick Clegg has said the Lib

Dems will be more muscular. Well done. Now I will play someone else,

we want you to read the script from the altar crew -- autocue and then

into the me. I am joined by the Liberal Democrat MP Ian Blandford.

Ask me a question. So how long have you been an MP, Ian? For the last

15 years. Really? What has your record in government been? Up to

now, as you know, not that successful. It is going rather too

well, so now we will test her skills further by giving her some

rather important breaking news by Our earpiece. I am afraid I have to

cut you off, apparently an election has been announced. Presenters

handling breaking news often have little to go on. In this case, we

have had the floor manager hand her some news agency copy to read, but

apart from that she has to a basket. 326 seats are needed for an overall

majority. -- she just has to busk it. Oh, so, this is the news that

the coalition has fallen, Nick Clegg and David Cameron are no

longer the best of friends. What did our expert think? I thought the

autumn cubit that you did was great, you had a lot of warmth and were

quite relaxed -- I thought the autocue bit. You did a good bit

interview me, a bit with the breaking news was probably

toughest? Yes, I had a script but I had to improvise to camera, which

is where the big pause came from. How has it made you think about the

job these guys do? It has made me think it is a lot more difficult

than I thought. It was not the most scientific

exercise, but Anne Chadwick has learned something from the

experience and maybe, despite her modesty, showing the professionals

a thing or two. Thanks to our guinea-pig Anne

Chadwick and her coach and guide Ian Blandford. Thanks for your