Day 6

Today I turned on my TV for the local news at 10, which was an interesting experience because I don't think I've ever watched a full local TV news broadcast!

WBZ News at 10 (Eastern Massachusetts)

This local news broadcast lasted half an hour and was broken up into small segments of different news stories. The stories concerned various local issues (only a few topics were national stories) and were all very short; the longest segments concerned a national weather front and how it would affect holiday travel. There was one five-minute and one four-minute segment on weather. Other topics included the investigation of last year's Newtown shootings (2 minutes), possible prosecutions on a meningitis outbreak earlier this year that may have been caused by a Massachusetts firm (1 minute), an accusation of inappropriate conduct of a mall Santa towards a co-worker (2 minutes), and the short holiday shopping season (1 minute). The broadcast also included a local sports update and a handful of less-than-one-minute features, and contained three commercials breaks of 2-3 minutes. Given their short duration, none of the topics were covered in depth, and contained only minimal background information. The only topics that seemed to be of any long-term significance were the Newtown investigation and the meningitis outbreak (although the weather front may more directly affect watchers' lives). About 15 speakers were quoted, though most of these were short interviews with people on the street who gave their opinions or feelings on the local topics. The Michigan attorney general was quoted on the meningitis outbreak, as were two or three local police officers on some other topics. This broadcast was an example of objective reporting, although the news was somewhat sensationalized with dramatic language and footage. This sometimes led to a one-sided view of issues. Also, I noticed that one of the commercials promoting the next day's coverage of the fishing industry issue was extremely one-sided, portraying federal regulations as destructive to the fishing industry with no positive impact. However, I would have to watch that broadcast to find out whether that feature is biased or not.

I did not feel that this news source was real, solid news. It frequently seemed like entertainment rather than news; for instance, the broadcast included a story on searching for holiday sales and another one on the most productive day of the week, on average. Some of the topics (such as the drunken state trooper crashing a car into a police cruiser) seemed irrelevant. There was no coverage of national politics or international affairs. In addition, the coverage of the selected topics was very shallow. After I watched the broadcast, I felt as though my brain were stuffed with noise. The show contained a lot of moving, flashy graphics, fast talking, and laughter; it did not have a serious aura. I would recommend this kind of show to viewers who are interested to know some of the events that are occurring around their community; it is certainly not ideal for those wishing to become better informed in general.