There will always be slow news days: days in which everyone behaves themselves and very little happens. On these days, stations must be able to at least sort of fake they have a reason for people to spend time to watch their newscast. I don't think KAKE on Sunday pulled that off very well. Their lead story at 10PM on Sunday: Square Dancing.
I will say if their story is correct, 7000 people coming into a town for any event is newsworthy, but a lead story? On the other hand the other stations didn't have mind blowing leads either, but they did a better job at faking a reason for people to watch. -Hal
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17 comments:
KAKE thinks everything is good for the economy. And 7,000 people isn't that many.
Come on Hal it was sunday you know KAKE was just getting warmed up for Overtime live and lawyer on the line. Can't do news when you have big programs like that on the air
She went a little featurey on it so it stood out as being a dopey lead. But I will concede, 7,000 people coming to town is hard to ignore, and a fairly big impact. Still, with three days before the convention starts surely they could have found a better Sunday lead. The other two had solid stories on that Eureka crash.
Did you just bash KAKE for not "faking" news???
There is a reason you couldn't cut it in the biz.
Anon 5:29,
When I wrote the post I thought that the term "fake" might steer some people in the wrong direction. I was right, so let me put it this way. Like it or not, a goal of a TV news operation is to have people watch THEN along with that, hopefully, have the news of the day covered. However, when there are slow newsdays and nothing is going on, you still want people to watch your station. So rather than use the word, "fake" maybe I should have said KAKE needed to provide a more urgent or sufficient reason for me (or anyone else watching) to spend our valuable time watching the very beginning of the newscast than a story about square dancing. I am sure someone will write, that news shouldn't be all about doom and gloom and its refreshing to see a bright happy and foot tapping feature story lead the newscast. OK. Fine. However, I strongly doubt Jeff or Susan (or Larry on the weekends for that matter) would lead off a 10PM newscast in the heat of Sweeps with breaking news of a just completed square dance competition. -Hal
Hal- you shouldn't have wasted your time responding to that. We knew what you meant, and it wasn't to "fake" anything. Someone was just trying to deflect attention back to you.
So basically you all are bitching about a group thats coming to town and spending money. It got coverage on TV. SO WHAT!!! Its FREAKIN SUNDAY NIGHT NEWS.
To the person who said "SO WHAT. ITS JUST FREAKIN SUNDAY NIGHT NEWS"....
Here's a clue: More people watch TV news on SUNDAY NIGHT---than ANY night of the entire week. Thats why so many stations have their front line teams working Sunday through Thursday. SUNDAY is the most important night of the week. Friday and Saturday are the least important nights of the week.
If you're gonna lead with a big party in town, you're missing an opportunity. If you're gonna do a story on Economic Impact of 7,000 people...nice idea....but still waiting for that story,
To someone that doesn't think 7,000 is that many people, then why don't we have them show up at your front steps. I saw them Square Dancing on KSCW this morning.
Hey hal,
why not post the comments about you not knowing when sweeps are?
OK ANON 839, Have it your way. I was hoping to save YOU from embarrassment.
I dont think I ever wrote that Sweeps were going on currently. I know they run Feb, May, July and November. I searched past posts and the only thing I could even guess you are referring to is comment #5 from this post. Here is an excerpt which I think somehow you thought I was referring to this month:
However, I strongly doubt Jeff or Susan (or Larry on the weekends for that matter) would lead off a 10PM newscast in the heat of Sweeps with breaking news of a just completed square dance competition.
So Anon get out your pencil and paper. Let me help you understand this and feel free to write some notes down for any future reference. I already had said previously they lead off the newscast with square dancing, so when I referred to it a second time, it was a reference to the future. I was saying that if this was one of the 3, officially 4 with July, Sweeps months I doubt KAKE would have lead off with the square dancing story as the lead.
Although that wasn't a whole lot different from what I originally wrote I hope it helped that one challenged reader. -Hal
GOOOOOO HAL! Put them in their place LOL I love it!
So basically you are proving you're an idiot. It wasn't a sweeps month and it was a slow news day... so you are asking them to sensationalize as if it was a sweeps month. Yet when sweeps does role around you bash the promos and sweeps pieces that are run. You say local news and trust in media is dying, then turn around and say stations should fake a reason to watch.
Get out your pencil, paper, tape recorder, VCR, and CD burner.
You just got served.
always looks better when you get out your spellchecker before "serving" someone
If anyone from the Eagle reads this blog, I'd be curious to know why the paper didn't report the missing clerk/Viola story in the Tuesday paper. It broke early enough Monday to make the deadline. Or did I just miss it? If so, it was buried. Curious to know if there was a specific reason.
ROLE –noun 1. a part or character played by an actor or actress.
2. proper or customary function: the teacher's role in society.
3. Sociology. the rights, obligations, and expected behavior patterns associated with a particular social status.
Based on the above definition of the word I am curious how sweeps "ROLE AROUND" anon 5:27AM?
So the reporter had to do a story about something that wasn't happening for another 3 days...she got the whole economic point across without making it just a bunch boring "yeah i guess it will help our restaurant" comments, and tried to have a little fun with it (would have been stupid not to). Get over yourselves.
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