Where Is Television News Heading?

[jtudor]

Is WSB full of sensationalism? I know its sister station in Charlotte WSOC Channel 9 stands for "We Show Only Crime."

But at least they are in Full HD format, unlike the other stations in Charlotte.

I don't look for WBTV, the station who used to pioneer all technological advances in Charlotte to go with HD for thier newscasts until they go under whatever new owner they have. I strongly suspect that Lincoln Financial will not spend the $$$ for the upgrade since they are supposedly planning on selling all thier broadcast properties off.

 

[jtudor]

Newspapers have always been scandal driven. We just forget that. We also forget unlike newspapers, TV doesn't give viewers a choice of what to and not to read.

It's about ratings, and unfortunately the news operations are so interchangeable that outside of the order of the stories they all cover the same thing.

We have enough news in Chicago for each of the three major network stations not to repeat but they don't. Each station tries to be number one covering the same news.

So it's boring and repetitive, this is why FOX news is successful, because they cover the same news but bring a new slant to it. Note I didn't say it was better, (or worse) I said it was successsful

Repetitive and copycat is the name of the game.

I was a video stringer for WCNC in Charlotte for about 10 years through the 80's and 90's. I had to scout for most of my own stories and pitchem to the assignment desk. Most of the time they were not interested in anything exclusive. In fact, a lot of times they would pass on a very big story unless one of the other stations was there. In fact frequently the desk would ask me if WBTV or WSOC had shown up, and if the answer was yes, then they would take my footage.

 

[imhomerjay]

Local TV news ratings are declining. In almost every market, viewership is way down compared to 5 years ago or 10 years ago.

Some of this can be blamed on more choices I suppose, but certainly dumbing down the news has run people off. With the sports coverage cut to minimal levels on some stations and the mix of tabloid crime, gossip, and "health news your family needs to know about", local news has run off men in droves. I think most nights in Dallas, women now outnumber men 2-1 in terms of audience make-up of the local news.

Don't overlook the impact of changing lifestyles. When I was a kid, my father was home every night by about 5:30, we had dinner at 6 like clockwork. Now, on a good night, I make it in the door by 7. Longer commutes, more hours, more families taking kids to various activities. It changes patterns, and helps explain why the one growing area for news on average is mornings. I get up before 5 most days, so there's no way I'm watching the 11 p.m. news. Heck, I'm barely catching the headlines on the 10 p.m. news because I'm either (a) running around doing chores or (b) crashed and zonked.

And yes, more options is a big part of it too. For people who are home at the time news is on, assuming they're not eating meals and away from the TV, with so many homes having cable or satellite and literally hundreds of things on at the same time that weren't there a generation ago, of course you have lower viewership. There mere fact that CNN/MSNBC/FOX/CNBC are there slices off some of the news pie, and then you have the kids shows and everything else competing for eyeballs, not to mention, with cable, the on-demand programs. 6:30 may be when you watch Barney with your toddler, not when it runs on the local PBS station.

Attitudes about news among younger viewers also are shaping the decline. A co-worker and I had a much younger colleague (about 5 years out of college now) who looked at us like we were from Mars when we said we watched the news each morning. This is someone very well-informed and sharp--she just got her news from a slew of other sources that weren't available a few years ago, not from appointment TV viewing.

You could blend the DNA of Cronkite, Brinkley, Huntley and Murrow to create the mother of all anchors and it still won't change certain societal trends.

The fact that Paris Hilton makes the news may frustrate us news junkies, but it is overly simplistic to think that's the main reason ratings are down. The pie is simply being sliced more ways.

The audience most likely to be bothered by the fluff is the same audience that tends to stay with the TV newscasts in the end. Just look at the ads on the network evening newscasts--someone is taking all of those drugs and buying the Depends, whether or not Charlie Gibson has to read a story about Anna Nicole Smith. And if those stories manage to lure in a few younger eyeballs that help keep the enterprise afloat, that's the price that has to be paid sometimes.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Mansbridge is excellent. Unfortunately our cable outlet decided not to show The National or any Canandian television. Instead we get our information from the likes of Katie Couric, the savior of the CBS Evening News. Let us pray.

It will be two years now since it was taken off the air in the U.S., but I think we should push for Superstation WGN to carry "The National" at 11:00 pm Eastern after their news. Who cares if Sex and the City and Scrubs are bumped to midnight?

Jonathan Allen

 

[BRNout]

Mansbridge is excellent. Unfortunately our cable outlet decided not to show The National or any Canandian television. Instead we get our information from the likes of Katie Couric, the savior of the CBS Evening News. Let us pray.

It will be two years now since it was taken off the air in the U.S., but I think we should push for Superstation WGN to carry "The National" at 11:00 pm Eastern after their news. Who cares if Sex and the City and Scrubs are bumped to midnight?

Jonathan Allen

I suspect you are thinking of Newsworld, which showed CBC news programming until it was purchased by a consortium that included Al Gore. That was a network that was primarily available to dish owners because very few cable systems picked it up.

Technically, it wasn't 'taken off the air in the U.S.' - which implies that there was some sort of new rule requiring Canadian TV to be removed from all domestic cable systems. Not so. The programming is available in border areas such as metro Detroit, northern VT, parts of Western NY, northern WA, eastern ME, etc. It's also available if you have a C-Band dish.

All that being said, I do wish that a CBC feed could be offered on digital cable. The programming is unique and the news product is very good. We are far too myopic here in the US. If you go to pretty much any other country and check out the cable TV offerings, you'll find programming from several countries offered. For example, in most of Latin America, cable offers BBC World, RAI (Italy), TVE (Spain), TV5 (France), DW (Germany), US Networks, CNN, ESPN, and channels from other Latin American nations. In fact, more than one country has Japanese and Chinese TV stations as well. All on the basic tier. It was nice to get some alternate points of view.

Here in the States, the international offerings are really hard to come by. Even the 'Latino' tier on digital tends to skew toward Spanish language versions of US channels and a few relatively lowbrow Mexican offerings.