Local news is something I worry about quite a lot. I think an awful lot is taken for granted.
Newspapers are dying - particularly local ones; radio stations have become parts of big groups, rarely maintaining significant journalistic resources; and now these new FCC rules have come into place in the US market. Except for the TV situation, we're exactly the same. In the UK we only really have two local news providers on TV: local BBC teams, and local ITV teams. Their main early evening bulletins (6:00pm for ITV and 6:30pm for BBC) are very popular with viewers. The BBC local news bulletin is the most popular daily news bulletin on television cumulatively across 18 different regions. But when people say that they're getting their news from their phones, the question is what news are they actually getting? Who are the primary reporters on the ground collating the information? Reporting is much more than just passing on information supplied to you on a plate. Yes, there's unquestioningly a lot of "churnalism" - so called reporting based on press releases. But there's much more than that. Local police forces may supply crime details, and local government officials press release or tweet policy initiatives. But who's challenging them? Who's asking the questions? Who's holding our democracies accountable? I wouldn't pretend that the average local newscast is going to be winning a Pulitzer Prize, national wire services like AP don't get this granular. While our phones are good at giving us traffic information and local weather, there is no equivalent for news gathering. Perhaps there is someone locally who is interested, and goes to local council proceedings and blogs about it all. But that's the exception not the rule. And while there may be someone in one neighbourhood, there isn't necessarily in the next. And in any case, they may or may not be any good. It's not like there isn't plenty of low level corruption and illegality anyway. Now imagine how much there'll be when there's nobody to report it, dig into it, and hold those responsible accountable? Adam On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 10:03 AM, JW <redbu...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Why would I tune in at a time that isn't of my choosing and sit through > a show > > order that isn't of my choosing to have people read stories they haven't > > written? > > Because if good people are putting together the show order, you might get > a decent package of stories, including some you wouldn't have clicked on. > (Yes, the people doing it may not be good, or, as Steve mentioned in > another post, they may be hundreds of miles away with no clue about how to > pronounce Monongahela.) > > To me, there's still value to a well-curated selection of news, either in > print or on the air. It's too bad that's becoming a lost art. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
