Established media lines have been blurred for a while now. Just as a print journalist might turn up with a camera, a broadcast journalist is increasingly tasked with churning out 300 words for online after their report has aired. I heard a fascinating account this week from a press officer that appears to blur those lines even further. Their spokesperson was a recent guest on Robert Peston’s weekly ITV political programme. Scheduled for Wednesday evening at 22:45 it is recorded earlier in the evening but – crucially – broadcast live on Twitter. So far so good. The problem comes with breaks, filled naturally with adverts on ITV. Not so Twitter, which simply continued showing the studio feed. So guests naturally thinking they were off air were actually being seen by those dedicated enough to watch the whole thing live. Now I’m not sure if this was a one-off production error or a consistent theme, but it’s extremely unfair on the guests – and another sobering reminder that the minute you walk into a studio please assume every camera is rolling and every microphone is live. Even during the breaks.
