What's With the Cell Phone?

An FTVLive reader sent us an email with a pet peeve of theirs. I want to share the email and then some thoughts on the backside.

This has been pet peeve of mine for awhile. Why do reporters think holding their cell phone looks good. I never remember reporters holding the old IFB boxes for live shots. I realize female clothing doesn’t always have a pocket but there are ways to hide the phone. Are news directors okay with this? It just looks sloppy. It’s not only this station, many others do it also.

Most often when you see the phone, it is because the Reporter’s script is on the phone and they need it if they have to dive for copy. And, like you pointed out, this is also their IFB.

A lot of Reporters will keep the phone down to their side and only bring it up when they are VO.

Back when I was Reporter, we couldn’t type scripts out on the cellphones and you either had a reporter’s notebook, or you didn’t use a script at all. That was the method that I preferred. I never wanted the script there as a “crutch” and I also felt I spoke more natural when it came off the top of my head.

But, to be fair to Reporters and MMJ’s they are often called on to do a number of live shots in a very short period and it can get confusing.

So, I get why talent has the phone with them. But, I think you can hide it a bit better and wait for the video to roll before you dive for copy.

Also, you might only have a few minutes between live shots to film that dance video for TicTok.

I can see why the reader doesn’t like the look, but in this one, I am giving the talent a pass. Just try and do a better job of trying to keep the phone out of the shot.