This has been niggling me for many years - that all tv presenter began articulating and gesticulating in really similar ways, irrespective of the content they were presenting. They could be talking about landmines, architecture, or walking along the beach, their movements would be exactly the same. The scenario: Presenter walking to the camera, hands move to look like they are holding a big bowl, a couple of more paces, and hands come together like they are holding a flower, then a standstill for a few seconds and hands holding the bowl again.

Intonation and expression also began sounding the same, Bombs going off, eyebrows up, intonation heavy then light, obesity shock, eyebrows up intonation heavy then light, gold medal, eyebrows up intonation heavy then light. Maybe it is something to do with how they combine looking into the camera and reading the autocue, that makes them heavily rely on certain patterns of speech and expression.

Flicking between channels and the presenters could be interchangeable. The consistency and predictability in which they present the news makes the experience a bit insincere - although I’m sure the whole thought behind it is to emphasise their empathy. But just how empathetic can you always be?

Then I watched Tageschau (German News) today and at times they read from the sheets. This seemed like such an old fashioned approach but somehow made the whole presentation more authentic and less ‘designed’. The presenter was actually human and not a media schooled clone. And because they were not looking into the camera - at the ‘viewer’ all the time, because they were looking down at their sheets of paper, their was a moment or two of unselfconsciousness, which I believe must be continually present when you have a camera in your face. This unselfconsciousness made the experience all the less contrived and much more sincere.