Jewish World Review May 12, 2000 / 7 Iyar, 5760
Bob Greene
Why news executives
are hoping this
'woman' is a hit
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
THE PEOPLE who have been trying to figure out the
meaning of Ananova's debut seem to be missing the
point.
Ananova is a newscaster -- she's very attractive.
Except she's not human.
Devised by executives at Britain's Press
Association news agency, Ananova made her initial
appearance last week on the Internet. That's where
she lives and works -- people around the world
click on to her Web site, and she delivers the news
to them.
She's like a wire service -- but she has human
qualities. One of the news executives responsible
for her said: "She's a lot more than a talking head
that reads the news. She's a computer with a face
in front of it, not a face with nothing much behind
it."
As you might expect, there was considerable
controversy about the advisability of letting a
non-human anchorperson deliver a serious
newscast.
Ananova's information is fed into her with digital
codes on each story, so that she can show the
proper emotions. If the story is lighthearted, she
will smile and perhaps chuckle; if it is about warfare
or violence, she will appear grim and concerned.
Focus groups determined what her voice should
sound like; the Press Association's division in
charge of creating Ananova even came up with a
fictional description of the type of woman she is.
She is supposed to be 28 years old, 5 feet 8 inches
tall, "quietly intelligent," a woman who enjoys
sports statistics, "The Simpsons," Mozart and the
British rock band Oasis. Everything from her
haircut to her eyes has been designed to make
viewers trust her; news executives decided that in
talking to viewers, she should "look up slightly, and
directly into the camera" (although, of course, there
is no camera; Ananova exists only on a screen).
Her designers made her eyebrows less full and her
lips more full -- it was decided that viewers would
like that better.
So the criticism of Ananova has centered on the
idea that this is all so contrived -- that a respected
news organization has descended into this silliness,
and that the whole thing is beneath the honored
concept of serious journalism.
Which is where the critics, although
well-intentioned, may be missing the point.
Ananova is, in fact, a news executive's dream
employee.
She will never ask for a raise. She will never
become so full of her own popularity that she
begins to demand to run the newscast. She will
require no vacations and no days off; she will be
asked to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and
will not complain.
She won't grow old, unless her bosses decide that
it is time to make her a little older. She won't argue
with news selection, or question her bosses'
priorities, or insist on rewriting the lead story.
Regardless of how successful she may become, she
will not be able to leverage her standing with her
fans into a contract advantage for herself, or
threaten to switch networks.
The open secret in the news business is the
frustration some executives feel about the power
that is gained by men and women who excel on
camera. It has nothing to do with physical beauty --
it has to do with news executives fearing that their
own control will slip away. In many cases, they
believe that they find a journalist, give that journalist
the chance for widespread exposure on television
-- and soon enough the balance has shifted, and the
journalist is demanding big money and a big say in
how the whole operation is run. News executives
don't often talk about this out loud -- but the bane
of their existence is that they may be the bosses on
paper, but the people they put in front of the
cameras develop the real influence with the public.
And now here comes Ananova. She is the potential
answer to every network news division president's
innermost wish, to every local news director's
dilemma: an anchor who will do exactly what he or
she is told, who will never bring an agent in to
negotiate a raise no matter how high the ratings
climb, who can develop a huge following, yet never
challenge the bosses' decisions.
You don't think news executives around the world
are silently cheering for Ananova to succeed? If she
does, you'll see them bringing in their own
Ananovas -- male and female -- in every broadcast
newsroom on the planet.
(Newspaper editors would love to do the same
thing, but being attractive or personable is not a job
requirement for those of us who work for them.
We're just sort of here, slouching around; our
editors aren't worried we will ever take over. Our
bosses know that creating cyber-versions of us
would be more trouble than it would be
worth.)
JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.
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