local news analysis

Sorry this post is late--my internet is down in my apartment, and they can't seem to figure out what's wrong. Whenever things like this happen I realize how much I depend on technology, and how much that dependence bothers me, especially when things fail. Oh well, a double-edged sword.

My local news analysis was very interesting. I don't ever watch the 30 minute news shows--if anything I watch longer, more in-depth analysis of certain issues, mostly political. So it was a little bit surprising to me to see what stories were covered, and especially how little time they spent on each subject. I found myself wondering at the end, did I learn anything? Besides the weather?

Here's the play-by-play:

Kare11 News at 5: Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008

NEWS Story #1: Economy (2 minutes)

• Number of Americans without jobs at highest level in 14 years—1.2 million
• Jobs in Minnesota taking a hard hit
• President-elect Obama focusing on economy and what he can do to hit the ground running.
• Companies likely to cut jobs through the holidays
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader asked for more help from the bailout.
• Obama wants to push through another stimulus package.
• “An enormous challenge facing two men at the crossroads of history.”
• Obama and President Bush to meet at White House on Monday.

CONSUMER Story #2: Less Junk Mail (10 seconds)

• Upside to economy
• Less by 95%

NEWS Story #3: Senate Race (1 minute)

• Race for US Senate in MN
• Coleman campaign tried to block 32 absentee ballots from being counted
• Denied for lack of jurisdiction
• Lawyer for Coleman says “pursuing assurance that there had been no tampering”
• Coleman leading Franken by 221 votes

CONSUMER/LOCAL Story #4: Children Deer Hunting (2.5 minutes)

• Used to have to be 12 yrs old to hunt, with safety training
• Now 10 and 11 yr olds without safety training can hunt with adults
• Met with families with children hunting.
• “Fabulous opportunity.”
• To get more kids interested in hunting before they get lured away by team sports, technology, or computers.
• Some think this age is too young to hold a toy gun, yet alone a real gun.
• Safety training is still required for full license.

NEWS Story #5: 8 yr old boy Killed Father (15 seconds)

• 8 yr old boy killed dad and another man in Arizona
• No disciplinary record or signs of problem

NEWS Story #6: Missing 3 yr old Florida girl (15 seconds)

• Thousands of volunteers from 30 states and Canada spent day looking for missing girl
• Hasn’t been seen since June
• Mom has been charged with kidnapping, manslaughter, etc.

CONSUMER Story #7: NWA Back in Service (30 seconds)

• 27 planes back on schedule
• Company audit had shown landing gear didn’t comply with FAA regulations
• No one ever in danger, all is back on schedule

CONSUMER/LOCAL Story #8: 5,000 War Vets (30 seconds)

• Winona Vet center got $1.4 Million renovation
• Will serve 5,000 war vets in Winona county

COMMERCIAL BREAK

CONSUMER/ENTERTAINMENT Story #9: Moms Like Me (30 seconds)

• Incentive to check out new website (screenshot of website)
• Contest with…PRIZES!!!
• Details of how to enter

ENTERTAINMENT/LOCAL Story #10: Linder’s Lighting Ceremony (2 minutes)

• Annual ceremony at gardening ceremony in St. Paul
• Over 150,000 lights
• Lots of families, reporter talks to the kids
• Inside is…booya? Some sort of secret formula drink. Hmmm.

NEWS/WEATHER Story #11: Flooding in Washington State (15 seconds)

• Heavy rain causing flooding in areas
• Bad news for people near river, but good news for salmon

NEWS/WEATHER Story #12: Snow in Duluth (15 seconds)

• Not rain but snow!
• Reported 2.5 inches
• Some jokes about salmon in Duluth…

WEATHER Story #13: Weather (4 minutes)

• Lake Effect snow
• 38 high, 32 low so far
• Windy, but will die down
• Radar screen, temps across the state
• Tomorrow…here comes the sun!

SPORTS Story #14: Sports (5 minutes)

• Gophers lose 29-6
• Why oh Why? Interview with players and coaches.
• More Big Ten Football
• College Football Ranks
• High School football in Minnesota

COMMERCIAL BREAK

CONSUMER Story #15: Posing Paws Pet Portraits (30 seconds)

• MN Valley Humane Society sponsoring pet portraits—get a picture with your pet for Christmas!
• Proceeds go to humane society

The half-hour news broadcast spent all of one minute talking about the Minnesota US Senate race, arguably the "hottest" topic in Minnesota politics at the moment. They did open with the economy, but although the newscasters mentioned the fact that Obama and Bush are meeting on Monday, they spent no time discussing this topic, unlike other longer news broadcasts, or news channels that focus on politics. The stories that got the most time were weather and sports. The other stories were definitely "sentational": murder and missing children. Also the hot topic of children hunting and holding guns at age 1o.

What I thought would be a great activity for students was something I was thinking about throughout watching this broadcast, and actually ties into one of our earlier assignments in this class. Who is the audience for Kare11's 5pm news broadcast? What is their positioning? What does their choice of news topics say about their audience, and also how does the way they cover the news position their audience?

One might argue that the audience of this half-hour news show IS more interested in weather and sports than national or even local politics. They don't want in-depth analysis or commentary, discussion or the presentation of different opinions. They want headlines. Three of the news topics involved children (the child killing his father, the missing girl, and the children hunting), and there was also coverage of "Moms Like Me," families at the lighting ceremony, and kids with their pets getting photos taken. To me, this says a lot about the audience of this show, or at least what the channel thinks the audience of the show is. Moms, families, etc.

I would have my students view a half-hour broadcast like this, but also maybe one on another channel to see if there's any ideological difference, if they can pick up on any of the "media bias" that everyone talks about. An obvious one would be to compare FOX to any other channel. Then I'd have them watch a longer broadcast, maybe on CNN, where broadcasters do go in-depth on issues, to analyze the difference. Then, like I did above, I'd have them talk about what each broadcast says about its "audience," the positioning, the stereotypes, etc. I can see this being a very interesting and relevant project in a media studies class.