Television viewers want their male newsreaders to look sincere - but female newsreaders are expected to look sweet and compassionate, a survey has found.
But the poll, of 1,017 adults conducted by the University of Hong Kong in March, also found that viewers placed greater importance on newsreaders being articulate rather than good-looking. Forty-three per cent of respondents ranked articulation in delivering a newscast as the top criterion.
Other top-ranking criteria included creditability, good tone of voice and a stable performance.
While 14 per cent of respondents wanted good-looking or camera-friendly female news anchors, only 6 per cent expected the same quality from male news anchors.
'Their skills to deliver the news are no doubt their priority, but one of the interesting findings was [that] viewers generally want the male news anchor to look sincere, honest and reliable, while being pleasant-looking, compassionate and sweet is expected for female [news anchors],' said programme director Robert Chung Ting-yiu.
More than 80 per cent of the respondents could not name a favourite news anchor.
