Are TV "news" and newspapers still important?

[Barbarian]

Jordin who?

I’m happy to say that I haven’t included anything Britney’s done in any of my newscasts in the past year. And I never even think of what else my network is airing when it comes to story selection. It’s completely irrelevant.

[Evil_One]

@ElvisL1ves

I understood him to mean the gatekeeper is the one that hired you in the first place - you’re not censored because you’ve established that you’ll present a show that doesn’t need it.

Political leanings and loyalty to the corporate message weren’t part of the interview process. Again, newsrooms don’t have a “political officer”.

@ElvisL1ves

But irresponsible to lead with it, or give it more play than the war or the economy or health care. Yet that’s what we get from the nets now.

News content varies by source. The 24 hour news channels will ride Britney to death because of her celebrity status, the freshness of the story and the appeal of the story to their target demographic. I didn’t see the “big 3” newscasts that night, but I suspect they spent perhaps a minute on the story. I was producing an hour long prime-time newscast that night. I had the story about 30 minutes into the show after two segments of local news and weather. Leading with Britney was never a consideration.

@ElvisL1ves

That’s where the criticism of programming that is essentially entertainment and not news, yet is still called news, comes from. You can’t inform people while you’re pandering to them.

Anybody who wants celebrity gossip has many shows, even channels, available to indulge it. Why should it take over even part of the small remaining *serious * part of TV as well?

As mentioned earlier, running entertainment stories is a way to appeal to the viewer who wants a little of both local news and entertainment news. Entertainment news is never in the first segment of local news unless it’s “They’re making a movie here and bringing millions into the local economy”.

@ElvisL1ves

But anyway, they do the easy stuff. They’re lazy. They don’t explore issues or candidate’s records in any depth, even though that’s what journalistic responsibility. as opposed to the entertainment-show pandering that rules instead, requires. Yes, I know there’s good reporting out there, but it just gets swamped by the superficialities.

Reporter laziness is a serious issue that contributes to the general dumbing down of society. It’s sort of a “chicken and egg” equation. The reality is, most people are not interested in (or capable of keeping up with) the level of political discourse we engage in on this board or on C-Span.

[Evil_One]

@Barbarian

Jordin who?

I’m assuming that you are trying to make a point with that question. Or because I know you don’t work in the United States and I’m not aware of the American culture penetration level there, you may be sincere. But somehow, I think you know darn well who she is.

@Barbarian

I’m happy to say that I haven’t included anything Britney’s done in any of my newscasts in the past year.

Then you must be producing a show that has a format that doesn’t include entertainment news of any kind.

@Barbarian

And I never even think of what else my network is airing when it comes to story selection. It’s completely irrelevant.

Then you must be employed by the government and/or your newscast isn’t teased in entertainment programming prior to air.

I work for a network affiliate producing a primetime newscast that is teased four times a night in entertainment programming. It’s to my advantage to write teases and construct the newscast in such a way that it will appeal to the people who are tuning in for the entertainment programming so they will stick around for the news.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

@Evil One

I’m assuming that you are trying to make a point with that question. Or because I know you don’t work in the United States and I’m not aware of the American culture penetration level there, you may be sincere. But somehow, I think you know darn well who she is.

Perhaps it is something unusual about us barbarians, but I have no idea who this Jordin is that you are talking about myself.

[Barbarian]

I used Google.
Turns out she’s the winner of the sixth season of American Idol, a program which my network carries. And while we do put some entertainment news into our shows, it’s only if there’s nothing else going on. Floods in Bangladesh rank higher than entertainment around here.

My newscast is teased during entertainment and/or sports programming throughout the evening. But while we aim to write teases so they will interest viewers and entice them to stick around, we recognize that most news watchers are creatures of habit, so we don’t slot in stories just to appeal to an itinerant audience. Tease is going to appear during a science-cop show? It will not affect my story selection. Stories should hold up on their own merit, or they don’t make it in.

I’ve always felt that no one remembers what is in a news tease anyway.

[Evil_One]

@Barbarian

But while we aim to write teases so they will interest viewers and entice them to stick around, we recognize that most news watchers are creatures of habit, so we don’t slot in stories just to appeal to an itinerant audience.

Our research has shown that about half of the viewing audience for my newscast are dedicated viewers…in other words, they change the channel from whatever else they’re watching (or turn the TV on) specifically to watch the news. The other half of the audience comes from the lead-in. This half is the more fickle viewer that is harder to catch. Each one of them that I can catch with a tease has the potential to become an “appointment viewer” if they like the newscast they sample…and therefore grow the ratings.

Some sweeps pieces are created specifically to follow certain shows, and are therefore teased within that show. It’s not done every ratings period, but it does happen. In that case, the primetime tease is simply part of the marketing strategy.

But for the most part, I select the news of the day based on relevance to my viewers, market-specific interests, my news judgement and other factors. I then tease what I believe will be of the most interest to the most people watching on any given night.