ITN

Winners of the RTS Television Journalism Awards 2021 announced

The virtual celebrations were hosted by Mishal Husain, Presenter, BBC Radio 4 and BBC News at Ten.

This year, the ‘Judges’ Award’ was given to all the technical teams in recognition of the ingenuity, innovation and speed they demonstrated this year to keep journalism on the air.

AI: opportunity knocks for news?

If you thought that AI is not yet having an impact on news organisations, think again. As panellist and data journalism pioneer Gary Rogers reminded this absorbing RTS discussion, “AI: the new frontier for journalism”, the Press Association’s Radar service – which he set up – has been using machine learning to create news stories for the past five years. Radar says it generates around 150,000 stories utilising local data journalism each year for clients across the UK.

AI: The New Frontier for Journalism

An RTS session considering the innovations and potential challenges of AI in journalism. We heard from organisations that are already using AI to work more efficiently and deliver more of what their audiences want, and got an understanding of what regulators are doing around the world to ensure that the technology contributes to the industry positively.

Hosted by Symeon Brown, Channel 4 News correspondent and host of AI Watch.

Panel:

Fiona Campbell relives key career moments

Campbell, who was promoted this year to Controller, Youth Audience, BBC iPlayer and BBC Three, recalled her move from researcher on the BBC Two business show The Money Programme, where she couldn’t see a way forward, to assistant producer on BBC One’s Watchdog.

“I was not passionate about consumer affairs journalism, but that job was an opportunity to move on and break out,” she said.

Stewart Purvis' TV Diary

There’s a weekend call-up for the Dad’s Army of “BBC crisis” pundits. “Linekergate” is the 60th on the Wikipedia list of “BBC controversies”, and Mark Damazer, Richard Ayre, Roger Mosey, Roger Bolton and I are on parade across the nation’s various air-waves untangling “another fine mess”.

The BBC’s football pundits and most of the commentators have walked out over the suspension of Gary Lineker for allegedly breaching the BBC guidelines on tweeting.

Obituary: Sir David Nicholas (1930-2022)

(credit: ITN)

He was appointed editor of ITN when News at Ten was widely regarded as the benchmark for a mainstream news programme and of a higher quality than its BBC rival. In 1977, Lord Annan’s seminal committee on UK broadcasting, which led to the creation of Channel 4, opined: “We subscribe to the generally held view that ITN has the edge over BBC news.”  

A new era for BBC News

Deborah Turness (Credit: ITN)

You could almost feel jaws dropping when it was announced last month that the pioneering Deborah ­Turness had been appointed the new head of BBC News. Turness, 54, had only recently got her feet under the table as ITN’s third CEO in as many years. Why would she give up this plum position – ideally suited to her skills at the company where she originally made her name – to take on the multiple challenges of running BBC News?