Page 236 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

A TYRANNY OF INTIMACY? 225

another expression of traditional femininity, but there is a remarkable
difference as to what element of femininity is exploited. As we have
said, the number of women newsreaders increased when editorial policy
led the Journaal to cover more ‘human’ aspects of the news. The former
executive producer Brusse, whose arrival accelerated this trend,
explicitly called this the ‘women’s touch’ in the news. ‘Men’s news is
to write on the front page that a fire happened, women’s news is to write
inside why the guy lit a fire for the third time’ (Journalist, November
1986). During his brief period as editor, Brusse continually questioned
the rationalistic underpinnings of the Journaal and emphasized the
entertainment value and emotional qualities of news:

One tear on TV tells you so much more than an ever so well
described tear in the newspaper. Television made us communicate
and participate in world affairs with tears. A Journaal without a
tear is not a real Journaal and that has to be learned.
(Elsevier, May 1988)

In Brusse’s ideal Journaal, newsreaders are assumed to provide the
audience with a stable point of identification with the news as a
programme among the flow of competing TV programmes. The
newsreaders are assumed to establish an intimate and personal
relationship with the audience of their particular bulletin. ‘Audiences
must be able to identify with the people who tell them the news. They
must derive a sense of stability from them’ (Volkskrant, 1 November
1986). Assigning the same team of anchors to each news bulletin
guarantees that audiences know who to expect and who to relate to.
Consider—as a short sidestep—the common practice in most other
European countries, where usually ‘different individuals will read on
different days so that the public does not come to associate the news
with a single source’ (Morse 1986:58).
Thus the common conception of the anchor as the authoritative, wise
and all-knowing (male) neighbour who guides you through a complex
and confusing world does not seem very appropriate for the Dutch TV
news. A comparison with the caring and never failing mother who tucks
you in every night after a day of emotional arousal, seems more to the
point. This characterization is underlined by the deliberately plain and
ordinary appearances of the anchor-women. Once, one of the more
popular women newsreaders was asked in a newspaper editorial: