Physicalities Over Skill: What Makes a good radio/TV story?

The realm of radio and television news is a lot more complex than its hard print brethren. Not only are the deadlines oftentimes more precise, due to having to be done in time for a certain or multiple daily broadcasts as compared to one daily, weekly, or monthly print, but the voice of the speaker plays a major role. For both radio and television, the speaker telling the audience must speak with confidence, punctuality and minimal error so that the story comes across smooth. If the speaker’s voice isn’t up to par with the piece that they are trying to say, the broadcast can become uninteresting or even worse, inaccurate. But television is even one step higher. Not only do the speakers have to have great voices, but physical appearance also plays a role. If you think of many great newscasters, they are good-looking and will more times than not wear makeup. If a newscaster doesn’t look aesthetically pleasing to the audience, they may be less likely to listen to them communicate the news.