I watched WCCO Channel 4 News at 5pm on Wednesday evening. WCCO is a local news station of the Mpls/St.Paul area that is owned by the CBS Corporation. CBS is a publicly owned corporation owned by its share holders. While the company is owned by the shareholders, it is run by the board of directors and officers. A statement from CBS' website states, "CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry."
While watching WCCO local news, I noticed many things in particular. The news started with a 3 main headline stories: a car crash in Eagan, MN, Vetrans who didn't have health insurance, and a preview of the new Northstar Rail that is starting to operate on Monday.
The first story that was talked about was a story in relation to a car crash in Eagan, MN/ The man who was involved in the crash was being interviewed in the hospital. This story lasted about 2 minutes.
Next was a story about Veterans' Day, that lead into the story about Veterans who did not have health insurance. This story lasted about 3 minutes. There was also a segment of a local elementary school celebrating Veteran's Day.
Next they talked about a Somalian man who was put on the "Do Not Fly" list and did not know why. This story was very short.
They also did short stories regarding a United Airline pilot who was accused of flying while drunk, a Gopher basketball player who is accused of stealing, and Oprah who interviewed staff from Fort Hood. Of course, they squeezed in some weather and then went on to the Light Rail story. After this they talked about the first public H1N1 vaccine, and went on to weather again. Then they turned to sports and ended the newscast with a story about a 60 year old man who is currently on a college football team.
The news broadcast was only 30 minutes, and one thing that I noticed was the commercial time. I timed the commercials and found that the commercials took up about 11-12 minutes of the broadcast. I also noticed that much of the newscast was spent talking about the new light rail. A reporter was aloud to go on a test run and interviewed many people that were involved with the light rail. The news channel also had people write in to get their opinions on the light rail. I also noticed that they had mentioned the light rail story right in the beginning of the newscast and did not mention it until about 20 minutes into the show. I also thought it took them a while to get to the weather, which is something that a lot of people actually do want to hear. I'm sure they don't tell viewers pressing information unti later to get them to keep watching. I also noticed the tone of the reporters themselves. Frank and Amelia, the main newscasters, are married. Also, all of them joke with one another and appear to have a fun relationship. I also noticed that Chris Schaeffer, while reporting the weather, pointed to his grandma's town and said "Hi Grandma!" The reporters try to connect with the viewers.
I don't watch much TV, but I do watch the Office which is owned 80% by General Electric (which is a publicly owned company) and 20% Vivendi (which is also also publicly owned company.
Some Newspapers that I frequently check for news are The Drudge Report, which is owned by a man named Matt Drudge. I think the site has a bit of a conservative twist to it. I also check New York Times, which is owned by the New York Times Company. They are a public company...in a way, but the publicly traded shares have no voting rights and shareholders can not control the company in any way. Some websites I use on a daily basis are: Google, which is public, and I often check my Facebook, which is a private company that is owned by Mark Zuckerberg.
It is very interesting to look at who owns what and what spin the medium has based on its owners. I think with news in particular, it is useful for students to realize that news stations usually have political motivation behind them. For example, Fox News, is a more conservative view point. Students could compare news channels in order to see what kinds of stories they cover and the tone in which they tell their stories. If students do not realize the motivations behind companies, they are subject to falling into traps in their perceptions of events and viewpoints.
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I had a similar experience. I was surprised by the amount of commercials--when I watched Kare 11 it was about 12 minutes too! Almost half of the 30 minute "news" was devoted to commercials. Like your story about the lightrail, one of the major stories during my watching was a story on the new Twins stadium. It was very light hearted, and positive in general. It seems as if news stations would rather spend more time talking about positive "interest" stories rather than "harder" news. On one hand I suppose this is good becasue otherwise we might get a bit depressed! But on the other hand, do I really need to know what kind of fertilizer the Twins stadium uses, or how the toilet work? Not really....
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