Commercial television’s breakfast programs aren’t for everyone. It’s not compulsory to watch and there are plenty of alternatives.

But the facts are that they connect with their viewers in a more powerful way than their traditional television news formats.

STOP. Don’t start commenting yet. Hear me out and then go your hardest… I’ve broad shoulders.

A television critic from one of the broadsheet newspapers yesterday wrote a scathing piece about the Sunrise and Today coverage of Cyclone Yasi. In a nutshell, he claims television presenters should be shackled to the studio desk and autocue, that they should never venture anywhere near a viewer let alone an actual news story otherwise they descend in to amateur dramatics and hyperbole.

“The question of sending in a battery of journalists, hosts and other personalities to play out scripted roles in the theatre of a natural disaster is an already discomforting idea,” concluded the critic.

“If the best commercial television news has to give is what we saw on Today and Sunrise last week, then the emergence, and eventual dominance of Sky and ABC News 24 cannot come fast enough”.

Sky and ABC News 24 do a terrific job. They provide a traditional rolling news format which certainly has a strong following.

Breakfast television is different. Is there anything wrong with that? Do news and current affairs programs have to be exactly the same as each other?

How boring would that be?

It’s like saying all the pages of broadsheet newspapers should just contain news coverage. Get rid of journalists having opinions, they should just give the facts. Drop the movie and theatre reviews, forget the fashion and food supplements, or car guides etc.

What do you mean they have cartoons. OMG no. People shouldn’t read a broadsheet newspaper and laugh. News is no laughing matter.

Hmmm… sounds a similar mix to breakfast television.

Gone are the traditional days where media sits in their ivory tower and decides what the masses should or shouldn’t be shown. Customers (yep they are customers) have other choices and will go elsewhere.

Just look at the ratings and circulation figures to see which media products are serving their customers the best and which aren’t.

“But ratings don’t equate to quality,” says our critic. What crap. It’s incredibly demeaning to the opinions of average Australians.

The only measure of success is whether your customers like what you produce. Media is no different to any other business. You listen to viewers and do your utmost to provide them with the best possible product they want.

Sorry that’s the real world.

Media diversity means Australians have choices. Some like Zoo magazine while others like New Idea. Some people prefer listening to Alan Jones on radio while others choose Kylie and Jacqui O.

There’s no right or wrong, or good or bad, decision. It’s what suits you.

Breakfast television is highly competitive with two strong programs and the traditional news services. It was arguably the first television news genre to actively connect with viewers. The first to encourage email comments, to launch interactive websites, to initiate loyalty programs.

And viewers have responded.

At a time when ratings and circulations of news products have been declining over the last 10 years, the breakfast television audience (average over 7-9am) of the two leading programs has risen from 542,000 over 2003 to 701,000 during 2010. Last week it was 870,000 and 1.2 million on Thursday morning… but that’s an unusual week because of Cyclone Yasi.

We’ve learnt valuable lessons from the most personal of all media genres, radio. The best radio hosts are the ones who connect and listen to their customers, who become part of their audience’s lives.

You don’t connect or become part of someone’s life if you sit there like a stunned mullet reading an autocue. That is just so outdated and archaic.

You can’t hide during 3 hours of live daily television. You just can’t pretend to be something you’re not. Yes you say stupid things sometimes, but that’s life. What you see is what you get. That’s why we love doing it.

We have a platform to inform, entertain and care for our viewers. To make a difference.

That’s why we get out and cover the big events. The events which affect the lives of our viewers.

We’re not afraid to get out and host 7 hours of live television, commercial free, without scripts or autocue. A story is unfolding and we go with it.

Our viewers love that we do. The thanks we get from those communities for being there and caring is overwhelming. They’re grateful that we’re there to show the rest of the country what they’re going through and to inform worried friends and relatives elsewhere.

On the morning after the cyclone, Grant Denyer’s journey out of Innisfail to Tully bringing viewers first pictures and interviews with those affected using an iPhone and Skype was pretty amazing. Spur of the moment stuff, innovative and groundbreaking.

You don’t do that sitting in a studio.

We’ve been accused of over dramatising Cyclone Yasi when it turned out to be a “fizzer” (a term used by our critics not me).

Firstly, it was the authorities who used the term “monster”, “the most devastating in our history” and “catastrophic”. We reported what they were saying.

Secondly, when it didn’t turn out to be as bad as expected we explained that lucky turn of events right from the start and throughout the show.

Thirdly, Cyclone Yarsi was hardly a “fizzer” to those who live in Tully, Mission Beach or Cardwell.

Australians care about others doing it tough. So do we and we make no apologies for it.

Thanks for sticking with this… look forward to your comments.

Comments  

 

0 #84 2011-02-12 10:13

far out I get frustrated with people sometimes. I firmly believe that we are too critical. There is nothing that anyone can do is right, in the field they are doing something wrong, not in the field they are not connecting. It is simple really if you don't like it shut up change the channel or turn the tv off you don't have to watch it. For me I enjoyed it, we need to know what happened and how the people in Queensland feel, it gives them value. For the critics, grow up and change the channel I don't want to listen to your whining!

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+3 #83 2011-02-08 22:59

Well i have been a fan of sunrise for years, but sorry to say, the build up to Cyclone Yasi with Sunrise has left a sour taste in my mouth i am sorry to say. I live in Cairns and knowing know what it is like to experience a cyclone i feel there was no need to send in reporters to try and talk to people while we are trying to prepare for a desaster, the last thing we need are reporters, camerman, sound men, producers, directors, stylist, and who everelse you have to bring along with you just to get that first picture or is it really a Logie you want. All we want to do is just get on with our lives without having cameras shoved in your facing asking "how did you feel" a friend in Mission who has lost everything was sitting on her now empty block of land, and a reporter and camera crew came running up to her shoved the mic and camera in her face, she needed just wanted time to herself, but could she get that no, the media need to know where to draw the line and when enough is enough.

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-2 #82 2011-02-08 22:26

I think you all on sunrise do a great job I dont think I could start the day off with out watching it. As far as the coverage on the floods / yasi'e... ect are concerned it was excellent i say keep up the great work My only disapointment is I would love to shake hands with you all of you on a job well done. I say to the critics out there if you dont like what you see use your hand to change the channel an get on with your life .

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+3 #81 2011-02-08 22:07

The coverage was overly dramatic and if you were forced to sit through it you would be bored witless. I think you are getting gist from your blog comments about how your customers are feeling. I for one am tuning out kochie. Report the news don't try and embellish it. Signing off for good. Over. Out. Abc radio rocked the disasters. If you are ever in one remember that.

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+3 #80 2011-02-08 21:00

Kochie
My beef is you put yourselves into a situation.There was already enough people in the line off fire and you guys just add to more possible problems...The biggest gripe I had was the morning after the cyclone..You where in Townsville telling people how dangerous it is to be outside at that time and shaking your head at people walking across the street....yet grant wanna be racing driver was driving around tully looking for carnage so he could stand in front of it with some poor bastard and ask (how scared were you'?)
and how do you feel after seeing your house blown over?
how much do you guys get to ask stupid questions? come on Kochie thats not reporting...would you want someone in your face after your house got flattened or flooded and say "how you feeling right now"?
really think about how you would feel?

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-2 #79 2011-02-08 20:41

Hi Kochie

My comments are simple - I dont think that you always get it right but at least Sunrise does try and give the viewer information they would not otherwise get. With the advent of micro technology iphones etc we were able to see first the devastation that was caused by TC Yasi! People in the districts that were hit by Yasi were also able to obtain to the minute info of where Yasi was etc...

People take morning television too seriously its called light entertainment for a reason! I actually appreciate listening to stories of your experiences with everyday issues (the teams) after all when the cameras stop rolling you all go home to family your life doesn't stop because the cameras stop rolling! Good on you :lol:

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-2 #78 2011-02-08 18:13

in the words of Bruce Gyngell way back on the first tv broadcast ... you have a choice, you can turn it off. gee now you can even change the channel. Kochie, i think you and all of sunrise did a great job under duress with the flood/cyclone coverage. as a long time viewer, you guys start my day in the best way possible while i'm having my cuppa. keep the faith

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0 #77 2011-02-08 15:58

Yes the reporting of the floods and cyclone was terrific, but I am sort of on the side that you have your reporters out in the field (Michelle, Grant, Nuala etc...) and that there was no need for BOTH hosts, let's say, to also be in the area. The extended coverages was often repetitive and almost looked like both you and TODAY (yes I channel surfed) were just hanging in hoping something would break so one could scoop the other. What good are the reporters if the hosts want to do the same job?

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+3 #76 2011-02-08 15:54

Sunrise, you do a great job. But I think the fact that you stayed on and on. Really trying making a story where there was none. You say you are journalists of great experience, having the camera on a balcony looking for bits of other peoples misery is not the way to make a buck. shame on you all.

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+8 #75 2011-02-08 15:07

I think Media Watch made a valid point last night. First showing the QLD Premier in her news conference saying that the "time to get out has past, everyone should now stay in their homes", Then showing reporters from both commercial stations standing in the wind and rain, right up until late that night, reporting nothing that they couldnt report from the saftey of inside a building. Media Watch went on to say that the ABC sent a drictive to all their staff and reporters that they were to heed the directives of the authorities when they were reporting. I think you do need be a little bit reponsible, there was one clip where the reporter actually stopped reporting because he was stunned by a sheet of metal flying by...

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