I downloaded the Sky News app and have been watching it for the last week
or so. As far the live newscasts, the most notable difference is the pace.
U.S. news tends to be faster paced and delivered with more urgency. The
most notable example is ABC’s David Muir, who begins each newscast
breathlessly talking about “breaking news” about an event that sometimes
happened seven hours earlier. Sky News anchors (presenters) are calmer,
something I prefer. The BBC is like this, too. Something else I noticed is
that they present opposite views without getting into insults or a shouting
match, something that seemed to disappear from U.S. news with the decline
of the “MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour.” They had a panel of people on talking
about Brexit and everyone was calm and level-headed. I watched for a few
minutes before I realized some members of the panel had polar opposite
views. Maybe they were just being British and polite. Or maybe they realize
they’re all in the same boat and the ice berg is, what, 47 days away now? I
knew Britain was in trouble but the depth and breadth of the trouble didn’t
hit until I watched a couple hours of Sky News and people discussing the
problems. They still don’t have the Irish border fixed? Scotland is looking
to immigration as a major boost to their economy, but who is going to move
there if their status suddenly changes if the right wing of the UK
government gets their way? And why would Japan sign a trade agreement now
if so many other trade agreements need to be negotiated? May’s government
seems to be in total denial. List member Adam is in for a seriously bumpy
economic ride. I wish we could offer more than thoughts and prayers.
I liked Sky News’ efforts in live interviews with people outside the
studio. It gave a sense that they were out and around Britain. For breaking
news, the videography was standard TV journalism but for special projects
they had some excellent features. My sense is that they are giving the
photographers the freedom to improvise and don’t have producers and video
editors pulling on the reins.
I would love to watch the UK commercials, but they substitute sloppily
edited clips from other interviews.
As far as the app goes, I was surprised they didn’t have a greater variety
of stories each day. A lot of stories carried out from one day to the next.
Most of the stories were built around written news. Not as much video as I
expected.
One maddening feature was the mix of proportion and orientation for the
pictures and videos. Videos moved directly from TV were in the standard
16x9 horizontal orientation. Material produced specifically for the app
were either square or in a 9x16 vertical orientation. This worked
especially poorly some times. Like they took security camera video of a
woman driving a car into a California police station lobby. The car was
cropped off the screen for most of the video early on – obviously it’s a
horizontal security camera – although towards the end of the video the car
shows up as it drives down the lobby.
Some of the app projects were excellent. The children of Isis is an
example. A great mix of video and written news.
So all in all a good news service. I know the Murdochs no longer has any
ownership rights, but it doesn’t show any trace of FOX News that I could
see.


On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 6:44 AM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote:

> Sadly, as is now becoming all too normal, British politics has become
> incredibly polarised. Brexit is definitely not helping there. Therefore,
> attacking the media seems to have become more normalised.
>
> Check out the responses to any vaguely political tweet posted by BBC News
> or one of their correspondents...
>
> On Tue, Feb 5, 2019 at 1:18 PM Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> I watched a little bit. It is bigger than I would have guessed.
>> I asked a question using #skynewsraw and checked back for an answer 45
>> later. No reply. So I clicked on the hashtag to look at the other comments.
>> Three quarters were attacks on Sky News. Half of the positive seemed to be
>> from other journalists.
>>
>> Sent from TypeApp <http://www.typeapp.com/r?b=14391>
>> On Feb 5, 2019, at 3:31 AM, Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> UK TV news network, Sky News, is 30 years old today. To celebrate,
>>> they're simulcasting a second channel today that is full of behind
>>> the scenes footage which they've named "Sky News Raw."
>>>
>>> It's not a wrestling thing. They've installed stacks of Big Brother
>>> style remote cameras, and have lots of interviews and voiceovers.
>>>
>>> Basically, if you want to see how a modern news channel works, this
>>> might be worth a watch.
>>>
>>> They're streaming on YouTube right now, and I *think* the stream is
>>> viewable ex-UK.
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehHn4eobHRE
>>>
>>> Yes - Sky News *was* owned by Murdoch, although it's now owned by
>>> Comcast. But UK TV rules meant that although it was a sibling of Fox News,
>>> it's a totally different beast and has a decent reputation in the UK.
>>>
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>> --
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