news

Chicken Noodle Network, they mocked, when CNN launched on a wing and a prayer almost 44 years ago. It was a revolutionary and, many thought, crazy idea: TV news, 24/7. The all-powerful US networks were confident that this upstart rival, thinly resourced and prone to on-air gaffes, wouldn’t last six months.

Instead, of course, it grew into an important and influential global news machine generating huge profits for its founder, Ted Turner, and a $7.3bn shares payday when he sold to Time Warner.

Isn’t it odd how quickly time goes sometimes? Apparently, I have been at Channel 5 for over a year – which I can’t get my head around. When I first met the boss, Ben Frow, he told me he wanted me to anchor the news but also make loads of other programmes for them and he has been true to his word.

Scottish TV newsrooms have faced unprecedented challenges in the past two years. The fallout from Brexit, Black Lives Matter, Holyrood elections, Cop26 and the pandemic have tested journalists as never before.  

News Camera Masterclass with Mark Davey

ITN news camera operator Mark Davey told an RTS Student Crafts Skills Masterclass that sound journalistic skills, the ability to form good relationships and a keen logistical sense were all essential for his job. 

It was Davey who worked alongside ITN reporter Robert Moore and producer Sophie Alexander as the only news crew to film inside the US Capitol when in January pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed Congress after claiming that the US Presidential election had been stolen from then.