News, Arts and Sports Writing (Fall 2018)

“What is Newsworthy?” (9-minute audio)

If you have not heard this podcast before:

Include the URL of a current news story, and use it as an example to demonstrate your understanding of newsworthiness.

If you have listened to this podcast for another class:

You are welcome to listen to it again to refresh your memory; but instead of responding to it again, I’m asking that you choose two different events — one that you feel is prominent in the media, but is NOT a newsworthy story; and one that you feel is not prominent in the media, but IS a newsworthy story. Link to your examples, and demonstrate your understanding of newsworthiness.

You can [get intimate with] an elephant if you want to, but if you do you can’t cover the circus. — The (Abe) Rosenthal Rule

A conflict of interest arises when someone who is expected to act impartially has a personal stake in an issue (emotional, financial, etc.). In every case, a conflict of interest is a real problem — even if nobody misbehaves.

Conflict of Interest: How Journalists Avoid It

I realize that your generation doesn’t watch TV nearly as much as your parents; nevertheless, much of the popular understanding of journalism comes from our experience with television.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of TV as a medium for delivering the news?

I sometimes hear people say “I don’t have time to read the paper. I watch the news on TV instead.”

• During a 30-minute local news program, how much time is actually taken up by the news?
• Why doesn’t the local news program start with the 5-day forecast and the sports scores?

Monitor a half hour of a local news; keep a log of what, exactly, is happening every 15 or 30 seconds.

You might pick a local TV news broadcast, or listen to a half hour of programming on a local radio station that brands itself as “news.”

For this assignment I am not asking you to choose an internet or streaming service; I am asking for a local broadcast (originating in the Pittsburgh area; or, if you choose, a local broadcast from your hometown — wherever that is).

• Note that local TV and radio stations also broadcast national shows, typically produced in Washington, that air across the country; I’m not asking you to choose one of those shows.
• Talk shows that feature celebrity guests and ordinary people with interesting stories, and shows that feature panels of experts or random callers debating recent events are certainly part of how we inform and entertain ourselves, but they are not what I’m talking about for this exercise.

I would prefer that you tune into a live broadcast, but WTAE-TV offers a link to live-streaming the local TV news to play on your computer. The link should show you live broadcasts (when I last checked, it was weekdays at 4:30am, 6am, 12pm, 5pm, 6pm and 11pm). If you visit when a live show is not airing, you’ll see a recording of the most recent broadcast.

Plan to monitor a full half hour program.

• Plan to keep a log. It is not easy to pay attention to a live broadcast and also update a log. You may wish to record the audio (so that you can go back and check the times).
• Plan to review the content of the newscast. (You might simply use your phone to record the audio while you are watching, but however you can revisit and consult the content of the broadcast is fine with me.)

The log for a TV news program might go something like this:

:00 Opening theme music.
:05 Anchor: Fire on 66 (coming up).
:15 Politics, Steelers, and fashion (coming up)
:30 Reporter: Live from fire on 66
1:00 Citizen daschcam footage shows 66 crash
1:30 Witness interview 66 crash
2:00 Anchor thanks reporter.
2:15 Anchor and weather guy chat.
2:30 Weather guy: “Coming up, we’ll let you know whether you’ll need that umbrella.”
3:00 Lawyer commercial
3:30 Optometrist commercial

[And so forth, for the full half hour.]

When you are finished, tally up the amount of time the news broadcast actually devoted to news. (Giving a brief teaser and saying “We’ll have the full story later in the broadcast” doesn’t count. )

• How much news was delivered during the 30-minute local news show?
• How much of that news was local news — that is, if you picked a Pittsburgh broadcast, journalism created by news professionals in Pittsburgh, about issues that matter to Pittsburghers?
• Did you include the weather and the sports segments in your tally for “news”? Why or why not?
• What can you conclude about the amount of “actual news” delivered over the course of a 30-minute news program?

Read and respond to the introduction.

(Quote a brief passage that you learned from, have a question about, or that you feel is worth spending class time on.)