Local TV News Analysis

For this assignment I watched KARE 11 News at 5. I like local news because I feel like they are people in my community, talking about things that are happening here. However, after reading the chapter I do see the drawbacks/issues with local news broadcasting (as with national news).

News:
Tornado in Austin (2.5 min)
“…natural disasters—are more likely to be given air time” (Beach 95)
local news; not breaking, appealing to human interest type story because the reporter interviewed a lot of people and didn’t necessarily present the viewer with an excessive amount of background information (not in-depth in that way)
Weather: Tornado update (30 sec)
News:
--Pilot died in mid-flight (30 sec)
Not local news; very short, informative, unbiased
--Lowry bridge (45 sec)—will be imploded this weekend; should all fall at once according to person in charge
Local news, informative, speech from woman in charge (appeared to have been speaking for a press conference and not just for KARE 11.
--Pawlenty’s budget cuts (2 min)
Political analyst (from Hamline) was interviewed who seemed to be biased about Pawlenty’s ideas/views. Reporter was informative; full of political jargon/language that was somewhat confusing to the uninformed viewer that I am. There were pictures of a classroom, a room in the Minnesota House/Senate, Pawlenty speaking. There was a discussion of a potential lawsuit, I think.
Preview of upcoming stories (20 sec)
Commercials (2 min)
Consumer/health/entertainment feature story:
--Domestic violence in St. Paul (1.5 min)—lethality assessment to help police officers prioritize cases of domestic violence
--“Hero Central” (30 sec)—food drive June 19-20; places to donate canned goods or donate money online
Preview (15 sec)
Commercials (3 min)
Weather report (~4 min)
Preview (20 sec)
Commercials (2 min)
Consumer/health/entertainment feature story:
--Family Christmas Tree Farm (2.5 min)—Somerset, WI; family received a conservation easement that will allow their 160 acres to remain undeveloped forever.
--Gifts for Dad (for Father’s Day) (20 sec)
--Swine Flu (More on this at the 10pm News) (30 sec)
Commercials (2.5 min)
Consumer/health/entertainment feature story:
Toothpick replica of San Francisco (45 sec): man built a HUGE replica of San Francisco using toothpicks; apparently it took 34 years to build.
Weather (15 sec)

To be perfectly honest, I don’t watch the news, local or national. It isn’t a habit that I got into in college and it wasn’t a habit when I was growing up. My parents are big Public Radio listeners so I grew up listening to the news on Wisconsin/Minnesota Public Radio and only watching local news to get sports scores or to see someone I knew being interviewed. As a result, I listen to the news in the morning when I’m getting ready for the day and that is about my only source of news. As I get older and have a more regular schedule I hope to get back in the routine of listening to NPR when I cook dinner, like my parents do. I would have liked to have known more about the pilot dying in mid-flight and have some light shown on the report about Pawlenty and the budget because the political jargon was a little overwhelming. I feel that because the report about the pilot wasn’t local, it wasn’t given as much precedent or time in the broadcast; however, there may not have been any more information available and as a viewer, I can’t possibly know.

I found the story about Domestic Violence in St. Paul to be a little misleading. It was interesting to see the shelter The Dwelling Place in St. Paul that is, as the director said, almost always full, but I thought the report was going to go in a different direction. Instead of talking about the shelter or ways to prevent domestic violence (or increasing awareness/treatment), there is a new assessment being developed called the Lethality Assessment; it will assess the lethality of the abuser and if that case needs to be a priority one. I felt, for a second, that I had fallen into a bad episode of Law and Order: SVU because of the involvement of the police. The assessment is a good idea because it gives the police pre-determined questions to ask the victim, but at the same time, the report left me wanting more information. I wanted to know about the studies that have been done and if there is any relevant research/results that can be expected. It brought to mind the concern that a questionnaire could possibly determine the outcome of a domestic violence call (and how pertinent the call/case would become).

I noticed that all the reporters/anchors were Caucasian though there was a mix of both male and female reporters. For each story there was at least one interview; maybe it’s my lack of news watching, but this stuck out to me as something appealing to human nature and that having actual people talk about an issue is more appealing to an audience. There are Thunderstorm warnings for the area and potential for those storms to get severe (and potentially develop hail/60mph winds) but my goodness is there a lot of talk about the weather. It would be interesting to see News at 5 on a day where there isn't a storm warning and see if the weather is mentioned as much; I wouldn't be surprised if it was.