Michael Herrod at ITV News on how coronavirus has impacted foreign news coverage

Chloe Choppen
Chloe Choppen 19th May 2020


For our latest online IBT briefing, we were joined by Michael Herrod, Head of Foreign News and Tom Clarke, Science Editor at ITV News. 

ITV News has a longstanding commitment to bringing international stories to a mainstream audience, covering everything from big news events and political disruption to the human impact of climate change. During the lively discussion, Michael explained how he hopes that ITV’s foreign news coverage helps to bring international stories to an audience that wouldn’t usually hear about them.

“I see our role generally as opening people’s eyes to events, countries and stories that they perhaps wouldn’t otherwise be interested in, or know about.”

We also heard from ITV News Science Editor, Tom Clarke, who offered plenty of useful insights into how they plan to approach COP26 and climate change coverage over the coming months. The climate crisis is a key focus area for ITV News, and our members from Oxfam, Islamic Relief and Tearfund were able to share their thoughts on how climate stories could fit alongside the current coronavirus coverage.

“It’s a question about how we as journalists can keep climate change on the agenda.”

It was encouraging to hear Michael explain that there is still a healthy appetite for global stories amongst their UK audience, and both Michael and Tom were able to share advice with our members on how to best pitch them stories, as well at the types of stories that their audience is most interested in.


Find out more in our ‘Meet the Editor’ interview below. Registered IBT Members can read the detailed briefing notes and watch the full briefing recording from the membership dashboard.

 

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