So is it quite possible that a smaller local news station can produce more news than a larger national news station? Well according to the GAO news study, there are ways to make it work.
With cable and satellite service, the public can receive programming from nationwide outlets, such as CNN and FOX News, and television stations in adjacent markets," concludes the Government and Accountability Office's (GAO) new study. "However, media outlets located in a market are more likely to provide local news, public affairs, and political programming addressing the needs of residents in that market, such as coverage of local political campaigns, compared to nationwide and adjacent-market outlets.
So if you want to watch local news, instead of just tuning into the short clips on www.CNN.com you can simply turn on your local news station! Who would have thought! Even though national broadcasting stations such as CNN do produce local news, locally owned TV stations do produce more local news than they do. Instead of typing in your city and/or zip code to search for current news or events, it could be more convenient for the average person to just tune into the local broadcasted news station.
Not surprisingly, the agency observes that bigger markets tend to offer consumers a wider variety of media services, including more providers that offer content in a language besides English. Although locally-based, independent stations provide more local coverage, the GAO says that smaller market area stations often make content sharing agreements with each other, which may reduce the amount of independent news material being produced.
Of course the bigger markets are going to be able to offer more amenities than the smaller ones, but the point is that if you are looking for your basic local news, it is just as easy to turn on the television to a local news station to receive this information. It is good that the GAO has done this study and they need to continue their studies to find out if any content sharing agreements will reduce the amount of independent news material being produced.
1 comment:
First, all media compete in a market, but not necessarily in a local market. CNN and MSNBC serve a national market, thus it should not be surprising that they don’t cover local news. The only time you’ll see anything about Huntsville on CNN is when there is a story of national interest, like a prison break. Unfortunately for you, media ownership is one of my research interests, so I actually went and looked at the GAO report. It made some interesting observations regarding diversity, which was the focus of what little media attention it received. It is important to understand the background of this. The Republican-dominated FCC is hell bent on deregulating media ownership and failed once already in 2003 after a Senate and judicial review. It is trying again, but this time it has allowed cross-ownership of newspapers and television stations only in the top 20 markets. There was a lot of fishy business with research in the 2003 round of hearings, including some reports that were sent to the shredder because then-FCC chair Michael Powell didn’t like their findings. One of those shredded found that locally-owned TV stations – as opposed to those affiliates owned by the national networks – produced more local news. Now as part of the review process of this deregulation attempt the GAO is examining the FCC’s work. What I found most interesting was that in making the obvious point that market size affects how much local news is produced, it pointed out that co-operative agreements between media outlets seem to affect that negatively. It has been noted for years by those who study newspapers (like me) that Joint Operating Agreements between dailies, in which they share presses, fix ad rates jointly, and share profits, tend to keep third newspapers out of a market. Thus what they end up reserving is not competition but profits for the entrenched newspapers by keeping competition out. The point the report seems to be making is that these type of agreements, which could also include newspapers and TV stations sharing staff and content, tend to work against market forces that should increase competition the larger a market gets. “These agreements may suggest that the number of independently owned media outlets in a market might not always be a good indicator of how many independently produced local news or other programs are available in a market.” Unfortunately, when you blog about another blog entry instead of about a news story you run the risk of repeating and even amplifying the distortions or misunderstandings the blogger has already committed. It’s OK to troll the broadcasting blogs for ideas, but you should try to find a more objective account of the story you are commenting on. Google News didn’t come up with many, but here’s one: http://www.radioink.com/HeadlineEntry.asp?hid=141743&pt=todaysnews Even better, of course, would be to read through the actual report. You don’t have to read the whole things, but just skim it to make sure you’ve got its main points correctly. It’s always better to consult primary sources, as the more secondary they get, the more problematic they can become.
Post a Comment