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Sunday, March 07, 2010

BBC News Body Language Unplugged and Dissected



Classic! I hardly see BBC News, but it all looks very familiar. Good work from John Dee.
This began for me as a strange tic, something I noticed occasionally and that was all, but in the last six months it has become a real irritant. I’m talking about the weird body-behavior of BBC TV news presenters.
I think it may have started with the idea that the presenter should stand up to read the opening headlines to the ten o’clock news. Presumably it was felt this would be more commanding, would give authority to the bulletin
Next came the animation phase, starting with a gentle wave of the script during the standing period, a sort of faux emphasis. Fiona Bruce was an early advocate of this.
We then had the hold a pen and look business-like phase, which in the age of the keyboard-and-mouse era always struck me as odd.
Another one was the look down at the papers glance - done so quickly they can’t possibly find the word they are ‘looking’ for. It also seems to make them look strangely shifty.


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