Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Ratings and the Insanity that follows...


Ahhh sweeps. Those four lovely times of year that the newsroom loses its mind in order to garner another viewer. Every station across the country pulls out every stop -- from saving their best investigative pieces for ratings, to staffing as many reporters as humanly possible, to pushing the weather staff to warn of upcoming storms. As Lewis Black would say -
" It's the worst storm ever, it's the worst! Don't go out, don't go out, don't go out! There's gonna be an inch of snow, it's the WORST inch of snow! "

Camera shots and mini opens that have never been seen before rear their ugly head. Promos for the news run every 5 minutes on TV ...and you are even bombarded on the drive to work with radio ads. Billboards around town flash the ultra white smiles of your anchors, pleading for you to tune in at 5. And if you do happen to tune in, and if you see a news format that you like, don't get used to it. You won't see it again until the next book. The newsroom only brings its A game during sweeps.

Oh...we've all heard the speech that ever since Neilsen has changed its system and can bring you detailed ratings minute by minute that it will be like we are ALWAYS in a rating period. But alas, that is just a speech. The staff is cut back to bare bones, the interns are allowed to write stories again, and the newsroom hum grows quiet. But don't worry...your next ratings period is only a few months away!

Severe Weather ALL The Time...


So I happen to work at a station that has branded the weather area the "Severe Weather Center 11" . We are always promoting the severe weather, whether we have inclement weather or not. I have come to realize that stations only have so many "catch phrases" ..i.e. 'News Coverage You Can Count On' (which we use), 'Live , Local Late Breaking' (which we also use) or 'Action News: We Take Action For YOU!'. I can understand trying to promote severe weather when there actually IS weather....but if it's 80 degrees and sunny....with a few days of the same in a row..isn't it just overdoing it a bit?
I see from letter to the editors in our local paper that viewers are getting tired of the constant scare tactics....and the cut-ins that happen at a single drop of rain....so why do stations continue to do it? I have been told by one of my news directors that the point is to inform the viewers, but more often than not the viewers are annoyed that we are covering up their favorite program. I've only worked at one station where they actually listened to viewers...if you were doing more than running a crawl it better be armageddon outside otherwise the assignment desk would be FLOODED with complaint crawls. Maybe that's what needs to happen. Maybe viewers need to be vocal enough to exact change. Maybe I'll try to anonymously call the assignment desk next time the station is crying havoc over a 5 minute rainstorm......

Friday, June 25, 2010

Something Just For Fun....


I came across this gem on Youtube and thought I would share it for any media professionals following my blog...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Loss of Grace in the Control Room


It used to be there was an art to switching the news...almost a rhythmic grace to pushing the buttons and taking or dissolving as needed...being able to manually change the pace of the transition on the fly. Those that were good switchers were able to make a rapid newscast look like a graceful waltz on a switcher...those that were bad....more like a tap dancer who's had too much Red Bull. Computerized news systems such as Ignite or Pakervision have stripped the control room of all its grace. They have reduced the once magnanimous TD's to lowly introductory computer programmers...and have taken all of the flexibility and grace out of a fluctuating rundown.

While news stations are clamoring to get the new systems in order to cut staff and payroll, they forget to take into account the loss of talent....of reducing a once well executed newscast to a quality level that you would expect from Youtube. Unfortunately, ratings seem to be on the stations side....and someday in the near future all newscasts will be executed via computer, rather than having a graceful director take the show home. How sad.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Breaking News?!??!!


What, exactly, is breaking news? If you ask Dictionary.com, it defines breaking news as :
Main Entry: breaking news
Part of Speech: n
Definition: news that is happening and being reported or revealed at this moment

However, if you judge this phrase by local news standards, it almost seems as if breaking news is anything that has happened in the last two hours that we can slap a mini open on in order to grab the attention of our viewers. Working in a control room, I have found that the news department seems to classify a LOT of things as breaking news, whether we actually have new details to bring to the viewers or not. I can't see how this would draw in viewers as time and time again we rehash the same few details we have, and keep saying we'll bring the viewers new details as we get them. Shouldn't an update to breaking news actually include the update? Or are viewers truly satisfied with a second :30 look at a car crash, or fire, or crime scene with no new details?

Breaking news is 9/11...Breaking news is a car crash or crime scene that is unfolding before our very eyes. Once that event is put to "tape" and re-aired as there are no new things to show the viewer, that event should be classified as just plain old news, and the scare tactics should take a breather. At least, that's my opinion.

Welcome!




Welcome all to the musings of a TV News Ninja. In the past 12 years I have watched the broadcast news industry undergo a variety of changes...to the point where it is almost unrecognizable to when I first began. In just the past decade we have transitioned from 3/4" tape, to a tape less digital format. Control rooms have now become one man computerized bands, instead of teams of people that specialize in one area. We are on a new threshold, where people either fail to keep up with new technology, or are able to adapt and advance DESPITE technology tying their hands. I am one such person, and have managed to adapt to the point where I have mastered the new control room technology, and have been dubbed an Ignite Ninja (that being a Grass Valley Ignite switching system) by my co-workers.

In this blog I will discuss the pros and cons of news technology, as well as some news practices that seem redundant to me, and where I think the industry is headed. I am one of the few who are "riding the dinosaur into the tar pit" as I wish to continue my career in broadcast news, but I do wish to learn the web side of things, and to that point am working on a Masters in Multimedia Communicatiosn from the Academy of Art University.