Anchor Critique
Jason Scarabin
Communications 360
Anchor Critique
January 18, 1995
This particular critique is of KUTV’s co-anchor, Phil Riesen. Phil was taking the place of Terry Wood on the ten o’clock news on Tuesday, January 17, 1995.
Although not a regular, Phil exemplified credibility by being dressed in a very conservative grey sports coat. His hair is trickled with grey which seems to add credibility. He has an honest looking face. He is an older gentleman.
He certainly built good audience rapport by mentioning that the station had received dozens of calls from concerned family members of Japan-serving missionaries. He assured the audience that the church had confirmed that all missionaries were safely accounted for.
Phil’s posture was upright and proper throughout the show. His eyes stayed on the camera, the desk or the anchor at all times.
His head movement was very impressive as well. When he introduced the Kobe earthquake, the camera was on a two-shot of him and Michelle. He said, as he was looking at Michelle, “That’s right, in Kobe, Japan,” then turned his head to the camera as it pushed to a single of him, “rescuers are…” Also, coming out of a break, Phil’s head was turned towards Michelle, then after a moment, he turned into the camera and said, “There were some new developments in the O.J. Simpson…” It seemed very natural throughout the show as he turned his head.
I must be quite critical of Phil with his ad lib/interaction category. First of all, he ad libbed twice during the whole show saying, “about 8 inches of flurries in my driveway,” and “I can put my shovel away.” There was very little interaction between him and his co-workers. It seemed as if there was friction there.
Now I must compliment Phil on conversational ideal. He seemed to hit the golden mean for most of the show. His language flowed very nicely. His inflections were very appropriate for each story. One great example is when he said, “a new drug to fight alcoholism is offering some renewed hope.” He emphasized all the right words in a way that interested viewers. However, I must mention that he veered from the golden mean just a touch when he was talking about Professor David Cowles. He said, which was fine, “David Cowles has now been upgraded to–pause–serious condition,” but the way he said “flesh-eating bacteria” to open the story just seemed a little too radical and over-emphasized.