Know Your TV Local News Supplier Better!
Media | November 28, 2009 at 1:53 amI remember, in the late 1980s and 1990s people would sit glued to their television sets at 9 P.M. for listening to the local news on television. The news program was a big event in itself and people would be attracted by the immaculate presentation by the newsreaders and media reporters. After the radio, local news on television was a craze with people. But now the local news industry is suffering.
Till a few years ago, a lot of people, young and old, would religiously watch local news because that was their only mode of accessing information about the world around them. But nowadays with news being available on internet, on mobile phones and modern electronic devices, local news has suffered decreased viewer ship. Even today your local news company will not tell you that they are not at the peak of their business. According to reports by the Project For Excellence in journalism, today only about 52 % Americans watch local news. At present, local news is just trying to 
survive by struggling with new ways to attract viewers.
If you are thrilled watching some of the latest sizzling news reports and features on the local news channels, don’t think that the channel has got a knack for accessing and presenting the ‘most sensational’ news. It is just that television channels assess their market viewership four times a year, i.e. in February, May, July and November. It is during these times that they come up with good news stories to get a top market rating. So if you are watching a series of news items on crimes in your city, take it with a pinch of salt because they may be just broadcasted to get a good rating and not that the rate of crime has really increased in your city.
Many times when I’d go out after listening to the local weather report that it will not rain for day, I’d be unpleasantly surprised to find that indeed it did rain that day. Your local news channel may be boasting of presenting them most reliable weather information but the weather forecasts are not all that reliable. They usually pick up information from NWS or Weather Central for base readings, then they tweak the reports with their much talked about Doppler Radar system which only measures the degree of precipitation and wind velocity.
If you’ve observed, most news channels have the same stories to talk about. Of course, I do agree that major news remains the same and when it is covered by different news companies you get to see the same news. But then, most news channels buy the same news from news consultants and they get repeatedly broadcast on their channels. So your local news channel does not give you unique news though it might claim to give most times.
Even though TV news channels claim that their journalists have collected first hand information, many a time these are gathered from sources.
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