News reading review

Yesterday, we had a go at reading some news bulletins in front of the camera in the TV studios. Each of us had a go at all the different roles which play an important part in news programmes, such as the anchors, the floor managers as well as the producers.
It all seemed very real, with the white lights, the cameras and the green screen and it was all extremely exciting. However, I can't say that we were any good at it. With this being our first go, we weren't sure what to do with ourselves and there were many factors, which we soon came to realise, that are just as important as reading the news.
Firstly, running the speed of the auto-cue with our feet was extremely difficult. As news reading has to be done slowly and clear, if we ran it too fast then we stumbled over our words trying to catch up with what was written on screen, but if it was too slow then we were stopping mid-sentence waiting for the rest of the script to appear. Another factor was the "triangle". When your co-presenter was reading, it was hard not to look gormless on screen, staring at the camera looked unnatural, and we had to be aware of what we were doing with our faces and hands. Looking back at what was filmed, we were doing all sorts of strange things that we didn't even realise we were doing. The triangle was important (looking at the script, the camera and your co-presenter) as it made everything seem a bit more natural, and would help to make us look for comfortable on screen. Smiling was also important and the way we spoke. We had to try and make ourselves seem more conversational as what we were saying would be easier to listen too, and we had to put some enthusiasm into the words to get away from monotone reading.
Although extremely fun, it was all quite difficult, but I think with some practise we will eventually get the hang of news reading on TV.

After this lecture, I decided to watch Tuesday's news at 10 on the BBC to analyse how professional presenters read the news. Their body language looked so much more comfortable and natural on screen, and they did indeed put the "triangle" into use. The way they spoke was also slow and clear, and the intonation kept the viewers from becoming bored of what was being said. There was no "faffing" around with their hands, and their shoulders were rolled back whilst they sat up, which again showed their professionalism, as slouching (like we had done) had given off a negative vibe.
I hadn't realised that there was so many other factors involved with reading the news and I realised that it isn't as easy as it looks.