From its first broadcast on screen , Newsround has always found a way to cover difficult topics in an accessible way, and, in the words of its former presenters, has been a ‘forerunner’ and ‘trailblazer’ in news coverage.
The children’s news programme has long been considered ahead of its time for finding ways to cover stories that matter to both children and adults, whether they are watching the broadcasts after school or searching online for bitesize explainers, as well as having a diverse on-screen team.
The popular coverage has included unheard voices from warzones, auditions, and climate change issues from a time when many of these stories remained outside of the main agenda, as well as major football news.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk, some of the famous faces who have presented Newsround over the last five decades praised the programme’s ‘pioneering’ coverage and championed it being a ‘forerunner’ in diversity, climate change, and other issues that children cared about, perhaps more so than adults.
, who presented Newsround from 1991 to 1994 and has now , revealed Newsround’s environmental coverage was ‘way ahead of adult years’.
‘Covering the environment was a daily mission for us because we had already worked out that kids were very, very interested and really cared about the planet,’ he said.
‘So, environmental coverage was way ahead of adult years, by several years I would say on Newsround.
‘We spent a lot of time covering the environmental pollution, the ozone layer, all those sorts of issues and I guess the beginning of climate change, in a way that adult news wasn’t.’
Sonali Shah, who presented from 2006 to 2011, added: ‘We talk about climate change really, really early on, and the fact that we were always in touch with our audience, ahead of so many other news programmes meant that, I feel like it’s always been a bit of a trailblazer.’
Aside from being ahead of the game in terms of climate change, the presenters noted how Newsround offered diversity on screen from an early stage.
Sonali said: ‘In terms of even the casting of it and who was hosting it, it was very early on that people could see themselves on screen, in terms of whether it be someone with curly hair or their colour skin or whatever, it was very relatable.
‘I remember seeing Krishnan, and going “Oh my gosh, someone who looks like me, who could be my brother, is on this programme.”’
Current Newsround presenter Ore Oduba shared his pride in being a part of Newsround, which he stated is ‘one of the forerunners for diversity.’
‘All of us had different heritage and family backgrounds. They wanted to make sure kids saw themselves on the telly, and I felt proud to be in that room and in that space.
‘Newsround would be used as an educational tool in classrooms, and 10 years later having adults tell you, “I’m still watching that programme,” you realise the power of the programme, and the fire still burns bright today.’
The ‘power of the programme’ was highlighted by the fact that Newsround coverage seemed unlike traditional news because of the presenting style.
As Sonali pointed out, from standing up in studios to dressing without ‘shirts and ties’, Newsround’s reporting was set apart from traditional adult news, making it more accessible to audiences from a very early stage.
Ellie Crisell, who presented from 2003 to 2008, told Metro.co.uk: ‘Newsround threw the rule book out the window a bit.
‘We never followed the main news agendas slavishly, we’d use it as a kind of jumping-off point and go through all the stories and decide whether we were going to try and cover them for children, and whether that was necessary, whether children would need explanation or reassurance or context.
‘We wouldn’t just do the main news agenda, we would do the news that is important to children, be that bullying issues or school lunches or whatever it might be but Newsround was always doing its own thing alongside the main news, but we were doing it differently for our different audience, and I think that it’s still doing that really well today.’
Recalling how Newsround remained flexible in its coverage, Sonali said: ‘I remember when Chelsea won the league, it was an instant decision from us to go “top story” but the adult news have only started to go “Oh we can put a sports story as the lead rather than politics.”
‘They followed on, we had that confidence to say “Let’s do what’s important to our audience,” rather than what someone thinks should be at the top of our news agenda.’
Today, explainer videos have gained immense popularity online, for sharing bitesize, understandable clips in the accessible format adults seek.
has been praised across social media for sharing explainers in this way, from covering the pandemic to the ongoing war in Ukraine, however, Sonali revealed that before the worlds of Twitter and TikTok, many viewers would turn to Newsround for understandable coverage.
She said: ‘On BBC One we had a huge adult audience and I used to get feedback all the time, people used to say “I don’t quite get how they’re covering it on the 6 O’clock news but I watch you so I understand what’s happening with the economy right now,” or they’d watch the Newsround videos, so there was a bit of a misunderstanding at one point that we were only for children.
‘Actually, the way we communicated, which you see now a lot throughout news with those explainer videos, we were doing them 20 years ago, and not assuming people had knowledge, and that doesn’t mean we were ever patronizing, we wanted to make sure that we didn’t assume someone knew about something so we were there explaining everything.
She admitted that ‘at one point we had more adults watching us on BBC One than kids,’ as the live bulletins were shared to anyone and everyone who was at home tuning in at 5.25pm each evening who wanted to understand the day’s news.
From introducing British Sign Language bulletins later this month, or questioning Rishi Sunak about what he does in his spare time rather than the state of the economy, Newsround continues to offer news bulletins that remain unique to the traditional news agenda.
What started out as an experimental broadcast 50 years ago has spun into trailblazing coverage, offering children and adults a stimulating way to understand what’s going in the world today.
Newsround airs on weekdays on the with a five-minute bulletin at 7.40am and ten-minute bulletins airing at 8.15am and 4.20pm.
