Page 234 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

A TYRANNY OF INTIMACY? 223

managed to work out many of Brusse’s ideas. Under his management the
Journaal acquired its present style and format. 2
Three teams of reporters and presenters are responsible for five daily
news bulletins. The 8 o’clock news is still the most important news
bulletin in terms of allotted time, energy and audience attention. It is
aimed at a family audience and is supposed to have a smooth and
informal mode of address. In line with its ‘family appeal’ this bulletin
also features sport news. The bulletin is presented by a woman and a
man, alternating each week. They are both experienced newsreaders
who were assigned to this bulletin because of their popularity:
‘Reliable, cosy and familiar’ (Parool, 3 March 1988).
The other bulletins too have their own formula and are supposed to
be distinctive news programmes appealing to different target groups. As
an internal policy paper of the Journaal states: ‘Attempts to produce a
more inviting and personal Journaal have to motivate audiences to
watch the news, and enlarge their pleasure in watching it’ (NOS, 1987).
As Brusse had already argued, news-readers are now seen to be crucial
in constructing a particular image for each news bulletin, and in
establishing an intimate and stable relationship with the target audience.
The audience must be able to identify with and relate to the anchor-
person of his or her favourite news bulletin. ‘We looked for journalists
that canpresentaprogramme.Asfarastheirappearanceisconcerned… they
must look like ordinary people. They are not supposed just to read the
news but to tell it from their own personal involvement’ (Parool, 3
March 1988).
The intimization of Dutch television news is an example of how some
values from the private sphere are transferred to the public sphere of the
news. This is expressed partly by an increased attention to human
interest subjects, but more telling is the way the relation between the
audience and newsreader is constructed—through carefully picked
personalities and intimate modes of address—as a matter of personal
friendship or close family ties.

INTIMIZATION AND THE WOMAN
NEWSREADER
This background sheds another light on the high presence of women
newsreaders in the Dutch news. In theory, the intimization of TV news
could have been achieved with an all-male anchor team. However, that
would deny the gendered nature of private sphere values. It comes as no