Preparing the Newscast – A Thesis
Buy now in Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover
A study of local television news; the interworking of a television station’s news department, how the news personnel shape the news and eventually have the product broadcast to a television audience in a United States Midwestern city.
Excerpt:
Scholarly research coupled with the reality of 22.6 billion dollars (1993) invested annually by corporations in television advertising indicates that television offerings have an influence on individual and collective human behavior. Television news in particular, because of an assumed reality framework in contrast to the implied fiction setting of other entertainment television programs, would seem to have a more profound influence on human conduct.
Regarding television news, more pointed research indicates that decisions concerning the selection of news items are subjective, and the decisions are made in a private and exclusive news environment.
A review of the literature suggested five broad factors that influence news personnel’s private world and thus the assembling of television news: (a) Personal values/ standards, (b) organizational/ corporate procedure, (c) economics/ ratings, (d) equipment/ time constraints, and (e) externally set events.
The foregoing an inducement, this research examined the processing of nonbearing news items for a local television station’s Monday through Friday early evening 90-minute newscasts. The observations focused on: (a) The five news factors outlined above, (b) the stages in the daily news cycle, and the preparation of the news program’s format concerning what items were selected, how the items were prioritized, and who made the decisions regarding item selection and prioritizing. The observations were conducted in the news department of the above-mentioned network-affiliated television station which is located in a top fifteen Midwestern United States city market.
The methodology used in the study was participant observation (Jorgensen, 1989; Spradley, (1980), nondirective and focused interviews (Metzler, 1989) and Merton, Fiske, & Kendall, 1990, respectively), and analysis of documents.
The findings indicate that the local news was influenced by Bagdikian’s (1984) entertainment view which seemed a result of what Ryu (1982) concluded was a need for rating performance.
The study also found that the personal values of news personnel may have influenced the selection of nonbearing news items.