Fox Creates Innovative Studio to Deliver News as it Happens

“Shepard Smith Reporting” will debut on Monday afternoon featuring a new state-of-the-art “Fox News Deck” studio that Smith will also use to deliver breaking news updates during different programs. The concept is to deliver news updates during the day as they happen. Fox released a video of the studio, which includes giant touch screens and innovative software that will allow Smith and his team to efficiently track news stories on social media.

“In an interview with Business Insider last month, Smith explained that he will play the role of gatekeeper — taking what the team tracks and verifies from social media and bringing it to viewers. It’s part of a push from the network to modernize the way news is presented by ‘escaping the boundaries of the traditional evening newscast,'” explains Business Insider.

“It’s kind of an old 1960s thought that you cram the news into an hour — every day, you have exactly the same amount,” Smith said. “So now, we’ll weave it in all day… But news is organic. And we’re going to bring it to you when we have it.”

According to a Fox video, everything about the studio is changing, but viewing patterns are also changing, and the studio is a reflection of that. Smith will control a 38-foot video screen with a remote control. Information specialists in the studio will work from 55-inch “BATS” — or Big Area Touch Screens.

“The way people consume news is changing,” notes Jay Wallace, VP of News. “Things are not so linear… people are not tuning in at the same time and watching the same shows.”

Peter Blangiforti, VP of Graphics Engineering, boasts that the set leverages advanced technology, some of which “has never been used before in a live television production.”

The network sees the move as a necessary change in an era of evolving media consumption and believes its new approach to delivering news will be emulated by others in the future.

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