Here's a story you won't see on TV
It is not often that you see a conservative blogger out of Minnesota quote Eric Black (unless you are AAA at KvM and you are taking him to task for the latest edition of "Cover your Amy") however, the information in this post could not go unremarked on.
"Here’s a story you may not see on the evening news
Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 6, researchers at the University of Wisconsin taped, dissected and measured the evening news broadcasts (early and the late) in nine Midwest markets, including the Twin Cities and calculated the average amount of time spent on election coverage, and then broke that coverage down into categories of types of political coverage.
The good news: The Twin Cities stations were above average in the the time they devoted, on average, to election coverage.
The bad news:It was 50 seconds per 30-minute show (compared with 36 seconds for the nine markets overall.
If you’re curious of the other markets, Madison, Wisc. led the league with 65 seconds of political news per 30-minute news show. The basement was occupied by the Detroit stations, at 22 seconds.
The research also showed that local news programs is by far the single biggest source of news for Americans.
Of the 50 seconds of political news in an average 30-minute Twin Cities broadcast, 76 percent of the time covered strategy or horserace aspects of the campaign, while 12 percent focused on issue positions of the candidates. By my calculations, that would be an average of six seconds per half hour on issues.
For comparison, the average 30-minute program (in the Twin Cities) in included:
Commercials. 10 minutes, 5 seconds (10:05.Sports and weather: 7:26.Crime news: 2:29.Election coverage: 0:50.Election issue coverage: 0:06.
p.s. As I write this, I’m listening to a conference call rolling out the results of the study. I believe I just heard them say that if you go to the website and register, you can get access to the actual tapes of all the stories."
50 seconds????? Out of a 30 MINUTE broadcast????? Is it any wonder that the electorate, hungry for information about politics and political races are turning to the internet and political blogs with greater frequency? Is it any wonder that the market share of the nightly news is trending ever downward?
50 seconds of election coverage versus 10 minutes 5 seconds of commercials...versus 7 minutes 22 seconds of sports and weather...versus 2 minutes 29 seconds of crime coverage...Woe is us as a country when we can only spare 56 seconds out of a 30 minute news broadcast to talk about the important issues of the day.
"Here’s a story you may not see on the evening news
Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 6, researchers at the University of Wisconsin taped, dissected and measured the evening news broadcasts (early and the late) in nine Midwest markets, including the Twin Cities and calculated the average amount of time spent on election coverage, and then broke that coverage down into categories of types of political coverage.
The good news: The Twin Cities stations were above average in the the time they devoted, on average, to election coverage.
The bad news:It was 50 seconds per 30-minute show (compared with 36 seconds for the nine markets overall.
If you’re curious of the other markets, Madison, Wisc. led the league with 65 seconds of political news per 30-minute news show. The basement was occupied by the Detroit stations, at 22 seconds.
The research also showed that local news programs is by far the single biggest source of news for Americans.
Of the 50 seconds of political news in an average 30-minute Twin Cities broadcast, 76 percent of the time covered strategy or horserace aspects of the campaign, while 12 percent focused on issue positions of the candidates. By my calculations, that would be an average of six seconds per half hour on issues.
For comparison, the average 30-minute program (in the Twin Cities) in included:
Commercials. 10 minutes, 5 seconds (10:05.Sports and weather: 7:26.Crime news: 2:29.Election coverage: 0:50.Election issue coverage: 0:06.
p.s. As I write this, I’m listening to a conference call rolling out the results of the study. I believe I just heard them say that if you go to the website and register, you can get access to the actual tapes of all the stories."
50 seconds????? Out of a 30 MINUTE broadcast????? Is it any wonder that the electorate, hungry for information about politics and political races are turning to the internet and political blogs with greater frequency? Is it any wonder that the market share of the nightly news is trending ever downward?
50 seconds of election coverage versus 10 minutes 5 seconds of commercials...versus 7 minutes 22 seconds of sports and weather...versus 2 minutes 29 seconds of crime coverage...Woe is us as a country when we can only spare 56 seconds out of a 30 minute news broadcast to talk about the important issues of the day.
posted by The Lady Logician at
5:24 PM
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