UNS — News Anchor is a profession in the journalistic field that attracted wide attention. This profession acts as an anchor to deliver appropriate information to the public. Therefore, a News Anchor should have several skills and abilities to ensure that messages from the information are delivered. Through Frisca Clarissa, Kompas TV Campus shares the Tips to be News Anchor and Content Creator through Casual Online Class (KOSAN) program. The joint program between KompasTV, Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, and Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) was held online through the Zoom Cloud Meeting on Tuesday (27/7/2021).
As a speaker, the KompasTV News Anchor, Frisca Clarissa, stated that News Anchor should have analytical skills and provide news comments. Even though it falls under the News Presenter job, News Anchor is different from News Reader and News Caster. News Reader only reads news prepared by the production team; News Caster reads and is involved in news production, and News Anchor is the combination of both. Besides reading and being involved in news production, New Anchors also has a role in the dialogue process.
“In a live event, there is a dialogue with interviewees. This is not included in a script; we do not just read the questions. There is elaboration process and analytical process there,” Frisca stated.
How to Start News Anchor Career?
Frequently, News Anchor also acts as a journalist that often comes to the reporting sites. They were trained to interview people from the site and look for news from the site. Thus, Frisca recommended that it is better for News Anchor to start from site reporting. Besides acting as site reporter, News Anchor also needs to build a network that will enable them to understand the interviewee’s characters before the interview. Networking also leads News Anchor to a quick and credible source of information.
“The better we understand our interviewee’s characters, the better is our delivery in the stream,” she added.
Frisca explained that News Anchor also demanded to understand journalism’s ethical codes, including staying independent. News Anchor should not be neutral but be independent; to side with the public’s interests. She added that people could train themselves to be News Anchor through social media by sharing factual, actual, and beneficial information for the public.
Soft skills for News Anchor
Frisca also shared the soft skills that are needed to be a News Anchor. First, to be self-confident, as a basis to build a relationship, meeting interviewees, researching data, and other journalism activities. Second, to be fearless, as News Anchor could be dispatched anywhere. It could be natural disaster coverage, raids, and riots, which demands News Anchor’s vigilance. Third, to be creative. The development requires people to improve their creativity, including gin journalism. A News Anchor should be creative to ensure that they deliver unique and exciting news. Fourth, implement basic communication principles such as eye to eye, articulation, and intonation when delivering information.
“News Anchor is not an instant process. Never think that you’ll be fine as long as you appear on the screen, broadcasting, then done. It is not like that. It all needs a process to enrich knowledge and improve oneself to make people trust us and journalists could perform their duties well,” she concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Alinda Hardiantoro
Editor: Dwi Hastuti
