WDRB Needs a Little Bit of Help
Media Critique of Local TV News
By Alex Cox
With WDRB it is clear that they are one of the better news channels at keeping their news Local. This is definitely a plus, but when looking at the stories that the news channel focuses on are mainly crime stories, as a matter of fact 31% of the stories were crime, that’s out of 120 stories total. The numbers of stories each night also vary widely; one night had nearly 30 stories while others have only 11. There was even a night when there was no news, just football, and this has only happened one time. A month long review of local news channels and the Courier Journal reveals that WDRB lacks evidence of the following principles and yardsticks of journalism; Noteworthiness, Watchdog, and Forum.
With all of this said the channel did manage to hit the nail on the head when it came to Local Relevance, one of the most important of the basic yardsticks of journalism for a local news channel, on the other hand most of their stories revolve around events that do not change the viewers life in any way. Adding onto that there have only been two, out of ten different tests, that the crime stories have gone below 5. The online stories are no better when balancing between what is needed and what is just for more views. WDRB broke one of the Yardsticks of journalism, according to gradethenews.com; newsworthiness which is a major factor that this channel has left out.
- · Children Hit by Drunk Driver Sent Home From the Hospital (TV)
- · Ankle Sprain Slows Kevin Ware (Online)
- · Women Using Stolen Keys to Help Herself into Walgreens (Online)
- · House Where Mother and Daughter Were Murdered Now Up for Sale (TV)
Listed above are some of the headlines from both TV news and online news from WDRB. There are many more, but these are the ones that seem to make the least amount of impact of a majority of the viewers.
WDRB rarely ever shows football, but one night they did, the update news broadcast wasn’t showed afterwards. The news usually airs at 6 pm every night but on 10-20-14 there was a long running football game on. The game ran until 8 pm and the next news broadcast doesn’t show until 10 pm. When compared to the other channels that usually do have football on Sundays, it is shocking. The other channels had a variety of stories while WDRB lacked variety.
Accidents
|
Politics
|
Crime
|
War
|
Business
|
Social int.
|
Health
|
Fluff
|
Total
| |
WAVE
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
WHAS
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
WLKY
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
10
|
WDRB
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
CJ
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
5
|
3
|
3
|
22
|
Going through the stories of WDRB it is easy to see that most of the stories not only lack some of the Yardsticks of Journalism but also neglect the 9 basic Principles. One of the main one’s that the news source has failed to recognize is watchdog, the principle that states a journalist must keep track over those who have the most power over the citizens. With the elections coming up and the huge McConelle vs. Grimes debates, the headline on the TV news was the McConelle vs. Grimes debate on live TV. Instead of interviewing the candidates the reporter’s left in charge of the story interviewed the people campaigning outside of where the debate was being held. On top of that headline, merely 8% of the stories actually covered politics. One week away from voting day and there is only 1 news story on politics in the TV news and 3 on the online.
A good note for WDRB is that they didn’t focus on the celebrity stories and fluff reports they had mostly 0 stories every newscast in this area. The online news is what struggled in this area, especially with some of their headlines. Such as one being on Adam Duvall winning the World Series or one on Kevin Ware and his ankle sprain. When compared to the other local news sources WDRB has much less of this type of story. One week WDRB had 1 celebrity and fluff while the Courier Journal had 13.
WDRB tended to not focus on the Forum aspect to the [1]9 principles. They did not show either sides, or really any conflict at all with the stories that they presented. Every once in a while they would interview one of two people like in the story that involved the house where a mother and daughter were murdered was up for sale, the TV news managed to interview the sister of the murdered mother. The reporters never really showed any opinion on the topic that they were discussing, this is defeating the purpose of the independence principle of journalism. If the reporters managed to elongate important stories so that they could stick to a certain number of stories and be able to fit in all the required 9 principles.
WDRB still keeps their stories interesting and important. This aspect makes them interesting and fascinating to those who are learning about these stories. This is one of the principles that leave journalist some leeway on gathering audience numbers. WDRB has this aspect with enlightening broadcasters, even though some are a bit too perky during serious stories.
It is clear that WDRB needs to be worked on in nearly all of their aspects. Even though the channel gives good news stories overall and they manage to give the story in an easy and orderly manner, it still needs a bit of work. The 9 principles and 7 yardsticks should defiantly make it into not only the reporter’s common knowledge but also everyone that has anything to do with the distribution of stories for this network. WDRB still has room to fix the problems that are currently over running their program. Noticing these problems is sometimes hard to point out because most of the stories catch our attention and make us think that they are truly important. Noteworthiness, Watchdog, and Forum are the main journalistic basics that WDRB needs to focus on.
