Page 87 - Communication and Citizenship Journalism and the Public Sphere

76 COMMUNICATION AND CITIZENSHIP

station obviously has an address on a real street in a real town, it is
presented to its market on screens everywhere, along with other entities
from New York, London, Tokyo, even outer space. Thus the repetitive
display over time of the station logo, the network mark, the series
‘billboard’, is the fundamental tool of establishing identity, just as
scheduling is the fundamental programming tool for reaching specific
audiences.
Since the enormous appetite of a 168-hour broadcast week requires
that most production be imported from the tape factories that have
replaced the film factory of Hollywood, the only window the local
station has to establish its continuity is the local news window. Its news
presenters are the electronic equivalent of a magazine cover or a
newspaper masthead and its coverage of local news is the way the
station is ‘present’ locally.
As a result, most stations have early evening news programs that are
often at least two hours long and late news from thirty minutes to one
11
hour. More stations are inaugurating hour-length audience
participation shows in early morning and late afternoon, to which some
12
even provide van or bus service. In addition, regularly scheduled or
‘special’ programs, usually on weekends or in fringe times, are focused
on specific local issues. 13
What sort of content characterizes these local programs, whatever the
format? In 1983, the Television Information Office, as research arm of
the television wing of the National Association of Broadcasters,
conducted a survey on precisely this and allied questions. The sample was
large and representative, 257 stations from every region, including
Alaska and Hawaii, 111 of them from 47 of the top fifty markets and 60
from 37 of the second fifty. 14
Local news can be divided into three parts: hard, soft and feature.
Hard news concentrates on spontaneous events, like floods and fires and
as such cannot be part of a planning process. Most news is, in fact, soft:
planned occasions of interest to the community.
The TIO Survey found sports was at the top of the list, followed by
ethnic festivals, local government affairs, neighborhood and church
activities, awards, Chamber of Commerce meetings, school matters and
cleanup drives. The performing arts and any occasion that raises funds
for charity, like the Special Olympics, form the second tier. Minority
activities such as local celebrations of Martin Luther King Day came
last. About 10 per cent of such coverage was in the form of specials, in
addition to regular local news programming. 15