Media Critique

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.

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[1] The 9 principles is how a Journalist tracks how well thought out their journalism really is

Kathryn Minor's Blog

While going through Kathryn's posts I have noticed how much time and effort she puts into her posts. She goes through all the possible arguments and counter pints that make her arguments and statements true. I have noticed that she takes her time in proving her point and how she knows her argument is good. With her arguments she shows that either the problem has been fixed or that it has at least been improved on. I love how she manages her posts in a way that even people not in our Journalism class will understand what she is talking about.

Quote from Kathryn's blog post WLKY news - not always relevant, "   However, there is a way to improve these articles so that they relate to the viewers.  It might be a little bit of extra work for the news outlets. If WLKY set aside a section in an article like “Man Shot” they could include an explanation of what to do if you got shot." She proves a point and gives her ideas on how to improve difficulties. 

Kathryn's Blog: http://kathrynminorblog.blogspot.com/

Kaelyn's Blog

One of my friends from J1 is Kaelyn, and I swear this is complete honesty, I am not favoring. She has a pretty legit blog. It's very straight to the point and backed up by lots of facts and proof. When I read through a few of her posts I found myself very interested even though we posted about some of the same things. I think Kaelyn takes all of her writing very seriously and she clearly shows it in her blog. "The Blue Ink Blog" is well structured and easy to navigate. She is really on top of her game. Way to go Kaelyn!



I wasn't trying to sound like an elementary school teacher.

Kaelyns Blog: http://bluerthanink.blogspot.com/

Television

The 100, Red Band Society, The Walking Dead, and Doctor Who. TV shows that keep me waiting week after week for the next episode. I love watching TV, it's a whole experience in its own. Being able to leave someone hanging after an hour of showtime so that they have to wait a week for the next episode is both cruel and enticing. I didn't even know why TV shows kept my attention like this until we learned about TV's history in Mr. Miller's class.

TV is what people love. It has both it's pros and cons and that fascinates me. I love learning about the entertainment video and this lesson made me very excited. I wish we could learn more on the subject and how it effects us as humans.

Good Reporting WDRB

On October 22 2014, WDRB managed to give multiple good stories on both the news and their website. Being a local channel, they managed to keep it with 14 local stories on the TV news and only 1 national. Their min story of the night brought good information to the citizens of Louisville about how hundreds of jobs were now available in the area. They kept most of the new relevant and well thought out.

The only complaints I have are that the amount of crime stories that day were higher than I would like to see on the news. Lastly, the online headline was about an up and coming basketball player for Georgia State, Kevin Ware, spraining his ankle and threatening his career. I hardly think that either of these things should have stress put of them. Other than those two thing WDRB did rather well with their news reporting on October 22.

Louisville Jobs (online):   http://www.wdrb.com/story/19625643/hundreds-of-jobs-are-available-at-a-variety-of-companies

Georgia State Ankle Sprain (online):   http://www.wdrb.com/story/26852391/bozich-ankle-sprain-slows-kevin-ware-at-georgia-state

Defiantly not Headline Worthy

Breaking new! Adam Duvall one win away from World Series Ring!

Um, no. WDRB made this their headline ( http://www.wdrb.com/story/27052595/bozich-former-louisville-star-adam-duvall-one-win-from-world-series-ring ) on October 28 2014. I have two disagreements with this,

A. it's not newsworthy there for breaking one of the 7 yardsticks of Journalism.
B. WDRB is a local news channel, this article breaks one of the 9 Principles of Journalism, local relevance

The article goes on about how if San Francisco wins the world series Adam Duvall will be fitted for his World Series ring. This article would be perfectly fine, if it was in the sports section of the website. But this huge headline was plastered on the home page in big bold letters. This might be exciting for the average reader that enjoys the populous aspect of the news. But when a person looking for real news stumbles upon this there might be a few difficulties.

Class Response: Movies

Lights, camera, action! This lesson truly made me excited. I love the movie industry, but I never really knew the background of them. I love how the movie industry went from filming small things like a soundless motion picture of a train to something like Avengers today. It didn't exactly shock me when we learned that now most movie theater goers are 12- 24 year-old people. I am guilty as charged for going to see a movie that everyone else hated that I loved.

*cough* transformers *cough*

I noticed that the bringing the TV industry along brought movies down but they are still around and loved today. Things like the experience both social and environmental is what bring teenagers crawling back for more. Even if the tickets are a rip off and don't even get me started of the concession prices.

Football. More important than news?

Although there was news on WDRB's website on October 20th there was nothing on the television news show. The only thing showing up were football games. This only happened this one time in the project that the J1 class was doing on news programs and it seemed odd that the channel that host's WDRB (FX) was even showing football since they usually don't do so.

The next day when our group was suppose to do the project the other classmates had news while we just sat there with nothing to evaluate. I think WDRB news should have been pushed back to 8, which is when the game ended, but that never happened. This week, according to the data we collected from the other news sources was big on education and health issues. Why, exactly, is WDRB trading these news stories for football?

Maddy Williams: Her Strong Words

After reading through nearly all of Maddy's blog I notice one that almost help me understand the topic better. She wrote about Mr. Miller's lesson on the intake of journalism. Maddy used strong language and wonderful description to explain her view of he lesson.
I love how she took the lesson and rerouted it in her own words. She describes in the beginning what that lesson was all about. Following up with a clear version of what she learn from the lesson. Maddy is also one of my best friends and the way she has been stressing about how well her blog would turn out. With her strength in writing I am not very surprised at how well it turned out.
I realize that this is short because the only critique that I have is, absolutely nothing.

*turns around and drops the mike*

Luigi Approved 

Maddy's Blog

Jessica Martel: Her Witty Remarks Against Racism

After the recent events that happened at the UK Constitution Day celebration, Jessica wrote a wonderfully sculpted remark to what happened. I read through her article and Jessica clearly and firmly shows her views on the issues of Racism in the 21st century.

She goes on about how race is simply just a word for someones skin pigmentation. Jessica specifically said this in her blog, "The fact that this argument is still considered valid, that it is still needed against Anti-Semist, Islamophobic, racist, sexist, supremacists in modern-day society is absolutely disgusting! We should no longer have any need for that, yet we do, because some people still insist on having the racial/sex/religious divide!" I agree fully with what she is saying in this and I am disappointed to say that I see this type of behavior in my own family.

It is truly hard to live in a society where we can not simply accept each other as we are. We are all human beings and our differences are so small that they should not matter. I have just recently been exposed to this in our very own school, duPont Manual High School.

Lastly I would like to point out that Jessica perfectly shows that the racist issue in the 21st century is absolutely absurd.

Jessica's blog

Class Lesson: 7 yardsticks & 9 principles

9 Principles
1. Truth: giving the audience reliable, accurate facts. Should be a journalists first priority
2. Loyalty: Tells the reader and majority of the public what is needed to be told. Not slanted or obscured for appeal.
3. Verification: rely on only trustworthy and professional verifying information. Making sure the information used is credible.
4. Independence: a journalist should not take no for an answer when it comes to publishing something truthful and what they believe should be known.
5. Watchdog: The journalist should keep an eye on all government officials from all levels.
6. Forum: should be backed up by facts and can be in relevance to the public.
7. Make the important interesting: storytelling with a purpose. It has to balance what the readers want to read and what they need to know.
8. Inclusive: Keeping news at proportion without leaving anything important out.
9. Room for Dissent: every journalist has to have their own moral compass.

7 Yardsticks
1. Newsworthiness: based on two major factors... (1) weather the story topic is core or peripheral (2) whether the story is to have a direct or lasting informational impact on the audience.
2. Context: measures the number of sources and independent sources in he days top stories.
3. Explanation: to capture the big picture while reporting about issues and thematic events as opposed to episodic reporting on isolated events.
4. Local relevance: to focus on the important events in one distinct area. Don't report on London when your area is the United States of America.
5. Civic Contribution: measures how well reporters kept an eye on government officials of all levels from The White House to the school board.
6. Enterprise: measures whether reporters keep up with other press releases by listening to the radio, investigating in that area, or asking the community basic questions
7. Fairness: whether the reporters get all sides views of the whole.


This lesson helped me understand the true meaning of Journalism. As well as the procedures that a journalist has to take in order to be considered a fair and true writer in this field.
The nine principles helped me find out that there is so much more that should be a priority to journalist. I knew that truth and verification had to be two of them, but I noticed others that I wasn't sure about. Such as, watchdog, forum, and room for dissent. Watchdog is the principle that the piece must serve as an independent monitor of power, like focusing on those people with more power than others, such as the governor. Room for dissent, is where the journalist has to have his or her own moral compass in the piece that they have written.
Onto seven yardsticks, this something that I already knew pretty well but this lesson defiantly cleared things up for me. I knew that the topic had to be newsworthy as well as the fact that the piece had to have local relevance to some degree. Civic contribution is one that I was a little fuzzy about what exactly it was. With this lesson I learned that civic contribution is where you keep an eye on every government official from school board to The White House.
This lesson is going to seriously help me when it comes to writing a legit piece.

Response: The History of Magazines

The fact that caught me off guard was the fact that Benjamin Franklin wrote the first American magazine in 1714, it was called the General Magazine. I also liked hearing about the Saturday Evening Post, which is a magazine from the early 1820's that was the most popular at the time. This magazine like many others tried to incorporate bits of everything from hard news to silly morning comics.
Magazines also helped develop many things like photo journalism and national advertising. National advertising helped support businesses and helped them grow, I find this as an important advancement that the magazine industry came up with. Not only did it introduce new advancements but it also spread literacy because of their lower prices next to books.
Magazines were eventually down graded because of the radio, which could reach millions instead of thousands. Now it is hard to find a true national magazine that has a little bit of everything. It is more likely to find gossip, fashion, or sports based magazines.
This lesson was absolutely fascinating. I love learning about the history of literature and journalism, especially when I love magazines. I was rather excited for this lesson hoping that I would learn when magazines came along and how they turned out like they are now.

Media Critique: USA Today? In What Way

Going through the Courier Journal leads to an expectation of important and trustworthy news. Although, flipping through it you would never expect to see an article titled, "Kate's pregnant again, and again struggling with morning sickness". Finding this in the place that it was, brings question to whom put it there to begin with. The article that addresses Princess Kate's morning sickness was in the USA today section of the widely read and known Courier Journal.

Thinking of where this article is it clearly looks over one of the seven yardsticks, Local Relevance. In order for an article to be Local Relevance in the USA today section it would clearly have to be in the general area of the United States of America. This article has to do with a whole different place across the Pacific Ocean. In order to fix this article's problem you should move this article to a different area of the newspaper or out of the Courier Journal in general.