August 1st 2023.
On Monday night, Charlene White won a gong at the National Reality TV Awards for her work on ITV's News at Six alongside Mary Nightingale. This was a major accomplishment for the 43-year-old ITV news anchor and Loose Women panellist. After the awards presentation, Charlene took the opportunity to reflect on the current state of the news industry.
In an exclusive interview with The Agency, Charlene shared her advice for how organizations can best avoid placing themselves in a ‘dangerous position’. She said, “It’s a difficult time for our industry. Technology has caused so much change and disturbance within our industry but the fundamentals still apply. We have to be there for those that watch us and engage with us and read what it is that we do. We have to be behaving in a way that’s trustworthy, people trusting what we do because being blind to what else is happening in the world can be a really dangerous position to be in.”
Charlene also acknowledged the potential of TikTok as a source of news. She declared that young people using the app for information gathering was ‘brilliant’. She added, “Wherever young people can get a trusted news source, the better. We can’t run away from technology, that’s not the way to deal with it. The way to deal with it is so-called old school news services engaging with people wherever they are. It’s very, very destructive to be in an environment where young people are taking on news from non-trusted sources and perhaps, they are skewing the way they’re looking at the world as opposed to a really balanced collection of news stories.”
Despite her support for a new digital era, Charlene was confident in her belief that the traditional newsroom wasn’t going anywhere soon. She said, “I don’t think anyone can wipe out news studios. You have to adapt and change, it’s no that we have to worry about being obsolete – we just have to be relevant, there’s no wrong or right way.”
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