Election Coverage Review: ANN7

The youngest news channel in the country, ANN7, has really gained popularity for what has been very in depth election coverage. One could argue hat building up to the elections, they had more coverage than both eNCA and SABC News.

The channel, who has mainly previously unknown on air talent (along with quite a few people that jumped ship from the likes of eNCA), has really put on excellent coverage from the crack of dawn, when usual breakfast anchor Peter van Onselen carried the hours 6am to 10am after doing prime time anchoring just the night before. Their coverage consisted of a decent mix of broadcasting from their studios in Midrand and the IEC Election Centre. They also mainly used the graphics package associated with one of their main election programs, SA Decides



From 10-12pm, the host of their daily elections program, SA Decides, took over from him in the studio. I really liked that they had her play a pivotal role throughout their coverage. They really shouldn't drop the ball on this.

I was however disappointed in the role played by editor in chief Moegsien Williams' role in the coverage. He was just a panelist during the 12-2pm slot. Gladys Sithole, the channel's weekend prime time anchor was up next, anchoring from 2pm-4pm
Senior Anchor Chantal Rutter Dros anchored from the IEC Election Centre from 6pm to 9pm where she had an exceptional panel with her, along with senior political Hajra Omarjeee anchored from their studio. Hajra had a particularly busy day: part anchor, part analyst and part reporter. She really has been one of the bigger stars of this election.

Amazing pic from Hajra Omarjee's Twitter

At 9pm when the votes closed, they brought the too large and distracting election graphics that have been used for Election Tracker back, for the first hour or so just flashing zeros.

Desmond Tutu voting live. While he had usually been covered as a prominent politician would when they voted, this time around only ANN7 covered him voting live.

Overall, I must say that their panelists that they had on during the day weren't all that bright, though some were quite good and they had too few of them on to the point that they had been on air for quite a few hours and after a while one can notice that they have screen fatigue. But they more than made up for this on their live shots and inserts(even though some were done using internet connections, which I am not too fond of), including showing all of the bigger politicans voting live. They were also the only channel to show Desmond Tutu voting live as the others were showing a largely uneventful news briefing from the IEC Centre. They had exceptional shots of the voting lines from their chopper and reallyu gave you a on the ground feel of the elections. At the end of the night, they had a sort of highlights package of the days events that was well produced considering the amount of content that had to be editied in that short period of time. It is really hard to think that the same channel that was so horrendous just a few months ago could produce election coverage of the calibre that they did.

They were also able to get guests of quite a high caliber on the channel, including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and even Police Commisioner Riah Phiyega to give an update of if there had been any incidents thus far. Her interview was quite a while.

Watching their coverage of the build up to and post elections has really made me question whether Ann7 might just be the place to go for politics in the South African media. They have gained great momentum during the elections coverage, it is now up to them to build on it. Them building on it is going to be a news junkies dream to follow.

ANN7 Election Plans

South Africa's newest news channel has released their election coverage plans ahead of tomorrow, May 7th, election day.

Their coverage will originate mainly from the IEC's National Results Operations Centre, though their studio back in Midrand wil also be used.

Like the rest of the news channels, they will be providing none stop rolling coverage from 6am to 11pm.

Their 9 teams around the country that has been featured in their special SA Decides program will provide updates throughout the day and the rest of the week as results start trickling in. They also have reporters stationed at ALL provincial IEC nerve centres.

Their coverage will be led by chief editor (and co host of Election Tracker) Moegsien Williams, along with senior anchor of ANN7 Prime (along with Election Tracker) Chantal Rutter Dros, senior political analyst (Host of Political Edge and gem of their election coverage) Hajra Omarjee and senior political editor Ricky Naidoo. Expect the likes of Vuka Africa host Peter van Onselen to be featured prominantly.

As thr May 7th Election Date Draws Nearer, ANN7 releases their final Projections in their Unprecedented Opinion Poll

On Sunday, May7 4th, ANN7 Senior Anchor Chantale Rutter Dros anchored a special [and final] Sunday edition of ANN7's Election Tracker program, which tracked the progress of political parties over the last six weeks.

This is a picture from an older edition. As such, the figures here represent an earlier poll

Though their partner in the poll, C-Voter, recently came under fire for allegedly falsifying information in their work in the Indian elections, their work in South Africa was largely uncontroversial. Below find the final results of their poll, revealed live during the 6pm hour of their extended broadcast.

It will be interesting to see exactly how 'accurate'  these figures turn out to be because, as senior political analyst Hajra Omarjee stated earlier in the day, South Africa has no 'science' when it comes to these kind of polls as they have absolutely no track record due to it being the first time it has ever been used.

Many a time over the past six weeks the poll itself has become a bigger attraction than its results. Political parties like the IFP have disputed the results, stating that not enough zulu people were consulted for the poll while others have qestioned their sample size overall. Often they would discuss these issues live on the air, like when COPE president Mosiuoa Lekota, who flat out rejected its results when he was on the show, did.

One thing I must say I enjoyed about this show is how it showcased exactly how dynamic ANN7's studio/newsroom is as they were able to seamlessly transition from one side of the rooom to the other.

The poll conducted by ANN7 was heralded as being quite a big deal. Come Wednesday, we will know exactly how  seriously to take it in the future.