Lower Third

A lower third is the on-screen graphic—typically occupying the bottom third of the video frame—used in broadcast journalism, documentaries, livestreams, and conference coverage to identify who is speaking, where the footage was shot, or what subject is under discussion. The term comes from the rough screen area the graphic covers, though in practice modern lower thirds often sit closer to the bottom fifth of a 16:9 frame.

A standard lower third contains two text lines: a primary line with the person's name, and a secondary line (sometimes called the "super" or "chyron" line) with their title, affiliation, or location. Networks such as the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, and France 24 each maintain branded lower-third templates with consistent typography, color bars, and animation styles that function as part of the channel's visual identity.

For political researchers and MUN delegates, lower thirds are useful primary-source signals: they show how a broadcaster chose to label a speaker (for example, "Rebel commander" versus "Opposition leader" versus "Terrorist"), which can reveal editorial framing. Comparing how Russian state television, Western outlets, and Gulf-based broadcasters caption the same figure is a common technique in media-bias analysis.

The word chyron, often used interchangeably with lower third in American newsrooms, derives from the Chyron Corporation, a US character-generator manufacturer founded in 1966 whose hardware became standard in television control rooms. Strictly speaking, a chyron is any on-screen text generated by such a device, while a lower third is specifically the speaker-ID graphic.

Common production conventions include:

• Keeping text inside the title-safe area so it isn't cropped on older displays.
• Holding the graphic on screen long enough to read aloud twice (roughly 3–5 seconds).
• Refreshing the lower third whenever the speaker's role changes within the same segment.

In livestreamed UN sessions and committee broadcasts, lower thirds usually display the member state and the delegate's function (e.g., "Permanent Representative").