Local TV News Log:
WCCO 4 News at 10
November 10th
INTRO/TEASERS :20
NEWS Fake guns banned 1:57
NEWS Senate Recount :55
NEWS Body exhumed for crime investigation :21
NEWS Green Jobs :18
FEATURE Holiday Shopping/Economy 1:50
NEWS Obama/Bush meet, Obama family puppy :35
NEWS Teen drowns in MN lake :55
NEWS Bus accident in WI :18
NEWS Military battalion home from Iraq :18
NEWS Child hero :25
TEASERS :34
//commercial break//
FEATURE "Good Question: Are teens good drivers?" 2:42
NEWS Full length movies on YouTube :19
FEATURE BWCA birthday (a Don Shelby story) 3:55
WEATHER 2:40
EDITORIAL Good to Know w/Don Shelby (gas prices) 1:05
//commercial break//
SPORTS Vikings & Twins 2:34
//commercial break//
SPORTS Gopher football :53
//commercial break//
FEATURE Chimpanzee cuddles w/tiger babies :47
Reflection:
This mantra of this newscast seems to be "make it relevant to the viewer." In many ways, this broadcast takes viewers' interest and feedback into account. First of all, not a lick of international news was covered in this broadcast. The Bush/Obama meeting story was the only national news story, while the rest of the stories were concentrated at the state or local level.
The "Good question" segment, which this broadcast does each evening, takes a question e-mailed in from viewers. The show also reported on on online poll which asked viewers which breed of dog the Obama family should get when they move into the White House. Even the language used by the weatherman reflects the needs of the viewers; he often starts sentences with things like "at the bus stop tomorrow, you should wear" and other things to make the weather personal to the viewer.
This station, more than others, is covers more "progressive" material than I've seen on other networks. There is an "environmental" story almost every night, for example. Also, this broadcast seems to capitalize on the familiarity the viewers have come to have with anchor Don Shelby over the years. In fact, Don Shelby's stories (his editorial and his BWCA story) were given 5 entire minutes of the half-hour news cast. His seniority and "belovedness" allow him more airtime as an individual than most stories combined.
An activity for teaching critical analysis of news:
Working in groups, I would have students find coverage of a certain news event from a variety of sources. One group might look to local news, another might look at a 24 hour news network like CNN, another might look at BBC news or news from another country, another group might look to blogs, another might find political cartoons, the list could go on and on depending on the number of students.
After doing their research, each group would report back to the large group, and using a graphic organizer or just class discussion, the class would discuss which aspects of the story covered by each source. And, most importantly, the teacher would lead the discussion to WHY each source decided to cover the story the way they did, and their agendas in general.
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2 comments:
Great idea! It would also be interesting to run the same classroom exercise with groups that analyzed a story with three groups - one with access to only video media, one with access to only audio media, and one with access to only printed media.
By the way, do you follow the media coverage at http://www.medialens.org/?
Ooh, that's a great idea!
I do not follow that coverage. What site is that?
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