The unaffiliated with any local station Miami New Times shows us just how lame local news really are. Apparently there was a movie titled “Code33” which takes place in Miami and centers around police efforts to find a serial rapist in Little Havana who’s latest victim was a little girl.
Trough the corse of the movie though the cameras of the Code33 crew pan from the police efforts to the media themselves and reveal what was going on during the coverage of the police investigation.
Aparently most of the groans and angry reactions from the audience weren’t about the chilling details of what the rapist did, but instead about what the local news media was doing.
Some choise quotes from the article
Channel 6’s Hank Testor infuriating cops — both onscreen and in the viewing audience sitting right behind Kulchur — as he seized on an offhand remark from a police spokesman to spin out his exclusive “rainy day theory” about the rapist’s identity
a Channel 7 field producer becoming visibly exasperated as his news director lit into him via cell phone. There weren’t any new developments in the story, the producer insisted, to little avail. Something had to be aired to keep viewers tuning in, to keep ratings high, and to keep advertising dollars flowing. With that scene in mind, it’s little wonder many TV reporters refer to their jobs less as journalism than as simply “feeding the beast.”
The article continues with the results of a recent study from the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center that took a look at how much time local stations devoted to coverage of Election 2004 4 weeks prior to voting.
The results? Nothing really surprising at all : WPLG was tops in political coverage with 12% devoted to local political races. WFOR and WLTV each gave 9%, WSVN came last with just 2%.
At the same time there were on average 8 minutes 21 seconds of commercials, 2 minutes for presidential race coverage, 2 minutes 34 seconds for crime related stories, 25 seconds on Iraq coverage.
The Miami New Times
No News Is Bad News
You knew local TV newscasts were lame, you just didn’t know how lame
Norman Lear Center study homepage
Report on English-Language Campaign Coverage in 2004 (needs PDF)
a lot of research is done regarding what people “really” want to watch as opposed to what they “say” they want to watch in local news. face it, everyone CARES about the local government crap…but no one really wants to HEAR about it because its boring.
I disagree. They dont care. That is why there is so much corruption happening. – people dont care about the locals. They only care about the state or national gov. people when something is done or said that might have an impact on them. Generally, they dont care.
doesn’t really have to be produced in a boring way. I used to watch local news a lot, I got tired of the stupid fires and wrecks. I don’t really care to know that yesterday at noon someone’s boat cought a little fire.
I haven’t seen any local news since last week and I don’t feel like I’ve missed it. I’ve watched more BBC America/World News during that time.
My other half doesn’t even watch local news, most of the family doesn’t watch any local news either. Come to think of it a lot of people I know get their news from either Yahoo, Google or Excite and their respective “My” features.
Don’t know what these research are saying, but I know I’m watching less and less local news overall