Newsround is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, so our writer went behind the scenes to find out what makes children’s news tick, by presenting an episode. It did not go to plan
When I agreed to try presenting an episode of Newsround, I wasn’t expecting this. “I’ll talk about how animal poo is being used to heat up homes to generate power,” says presenter Martin Dougan, who is about to pretend to be a guest. “You can ask whatever questions you want, but remember: my name is Jerry and it is about poo.”
Next week, Newsround celebrates its 50th anniversary. Hence my visit to the set of the children’s news bulletin: partly because the show’s production team have invited me to mark the milestone by presenting a whole (fake) episode – and thus understand how hard it is to cover news for children. But also because Newsround was a mainstay of my childhood. Without it, I don’t think I would be a journalist.
