Fox News Replaces Desks With Bizarre, Giant Tablets 20:33 0 comments

Fox News has just unveiled a breathtakingly ridiculous newsroom, complete with novelty-sized Windows-based touchscreens, a Twitter wall, and a wannabe Minority Report-style display, which it hopes will connect it with generations of viewers who use smartphones and apps.

It what looks like something out of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory — or maybe Minority Report but with teeny tiny people.

In a video that could be mistaken for a College Humor or Saturday Night Live parody, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith walks viewers through the network's new setup, which includes workstations with 55-inch touchscreen monitors in the background of the broadcast. In the video, journalists swipe through pages and apps, presumably collecting information for live reporting. "We call these BATs," Smith notes. "Big area touchscreens."

Fox confirmed the models are running Windows 8. Although it didn't specify the model type, we're pegging it as Microsoft's Perspective Pixel touchscreens, which cost about $8,000 each. Microsoft makes an even larger model — 82 inches — for an astounding $87,000.

Smith later demonstrates a gigantic 38-foot-long video wall with a device "never been used in broadcast television before." It's a remote control that allows Smith to shuffle through an image carousel with no apparent journalistic purpose. "For instance, I can take this lady who's been evacuating from a hurricane zone and move it over here," Smith says.

Fox says the new "news deck" is designed to appeal to viewers who are "nonlinear" — those who sift through news all day on their phones and computers. "Just like you, we get our news from multiple platforms," Smith says, "and this is the place where viewers can watch us sort it all out as it happens." In other words, Fox's new newsroom will serve as a fact-checking machine for Twitter's firehose. 

The move is a part of Fox's effort to evolve with the times and take risks. The touchscreens are intended to be multipurpose for functionality and add another visual element to the broadcast experience.

According to the video, Fox believes this concept will be copied in other newsrooms and become "the norm". Smith says his team has spent "weeks" training to use the new software — but we'll have to wait and see if Fox has managed to algorithmically translate its "fair and balanced" reporting.