By GREG DIXON
If One News was a restaurant, what would it serve?
Meatloaf and three vege with plenty of lumpy, brown gravy, one supposes - appetising enough for its ageing audience.
But what about the kids, the young at heart, the internet generation? Where's their information restaurant? Well, here's some good news: it opens for business on Tuesday.
Called Flipside, this new news show is pitched at those who aren't interested in mainstream news and current affairs but instead want their information shot fast and from the hip - in other words, a fast-food news outlet.
"Flipside is geared towards anyone who wants to know what's going on from a perspective different from the one mainstream, 6 oÕclock news on TV One and TV3 gives them," says associate producer Neill Torbit.
"These people are not interested in breaking news, crime stories and that sort of thing, which is the fodder of mainstream news. What these people want to see, what they call news, is different. They're interested in things like entertainment, fashion, the latest technology, music. To a younger age group that is news."
Hosted by 100 Hours' Evie Ashton and radio DJ Mike Puru (pictured), the twice-weekly, half-hour show will also have a major interactive element via its website, www.flipside.nzoom.co.nz
The site gives viewers the chance to comment on the news they are watching while they're watching it, and Torbit hopes these comments can run along the bottom of the screen, much like CNN's news ticker, during the show.
"We're calling it a 'two-screen experience'. It's sort of a halfway-house on the road to digital television."
Viewers will also be able to contribute their own news stories for posting on the website. If the stories are good enough, they will also be screened on the television show.
Torbit says such interactive elements are important for media-savvy teens and twenty-somethings. "There has been a tradition of passive news watching. But now, with the internet and with the advent of things like digital TV, that's sort of changing and people are no longer content to be a totally passive audience.
"Also, there's been a sort of morselisation of information. They don't want to watch a five-minute feature about something. They'd prefer to see five one-minute features and they'd prefer to able to choose what they want to watch or at least have some sort of interaction and get involved with it.
"Hopefully that's how we'll keep ourselves relevant to the people who want to watch the programme."
Would you like fries with that news?
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.