Response to Vic's Blog

While reading Vic’s blog about news programs I noticed that he watches mostly national news. He is totally opposite from me. I avoid national news. I believe that the local stations provide enough world and national coverage and what they don’t cover I can get on the internet, without any spin. The local channels do follow the same reporting sequence that Vic mentioned: local, regional, world, weather and sports news. This makes sense. They start with what impacts their viewership the most. Like Vic, I too am most interested in the seven day weather forecast. That is usually why I watch the entire news program, so I can see what the weather is like.

I usually watch a news program everyday. The program I watch is local, not national. I don’t watch national news because I believe it has become too political and is no longer objective. I am not interested in some reporter’s opinion of the President or the candidates. Just report what happened and move on. The local networks sometimes are not objective, but not often. They do a good job of reporting the local news and cover some national news.

Friday I was watching a local news program and their top story was about one case of vandalism on an individual’s car. I don’t remember what their next story was, but the third item was an alert about a missing teenager, who was possibly suicidal. My husband and I commented on this. We thought that the top story should have been about the missing teen instead of a story about someone’s tires getting slashed. Who decides what the top stories are? Usually, as a viewer, I just watch the news. On Friday I was analyzing what I was watching. I really don’t know anything at all about producing a news program. I know that the anchors usually read what is put in front of them (when they do improvise it can be disastrous), but that is all I know about news programs. Hopefully our guest speaker will be able to teach me more.