Information Subsidy and Agenda-Building in Local Television News [electronic resource] / Dan Berkowitz.
To examine the agenda-building process in local television news, a study collected data in the newsroom of a network-affiliate television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, during a four-week period. Assignment editors and producers were observed as they selected from among the information subsidies...
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| Format: | Electronic eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Distributed by ERIC Clearinghouse,
1989.
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| Summary: | To examine the agenda-building process in local television news, a study collected data in the newsroom of a network-affiliate television station in Indianapolis, Indiana, during a four-week period. Assignment editors and producers were observed as they selected from among the information subsidies they received in the mail (including news releases, meeting announcements, magazines, press kits, invitations, and information about satellite feeds or videotapes); all items discarded were saved for analysis, and items kept for the station's future file were noted. Findings indicated: (1) that news decision-makers discarded 78% of the information subsidies and kept 22% (in this first filtering); (2) that information from non-profit organizations and interest groups was kept most frequently, while that from government-related sources and businesses was kept least frequently; (3) that subsidies with a city setting were kept most frequently, with a lower proportion of state and national stories retained; and (4) that planned event items were kept much more frequently than informative material, though 68% of the information subsidies received were informative materials rather than event-related. The keys to successful information subsidy appeared to be local relevance and the ability to provide concrete news events. (Four tables of data and 22 notes are included.) (SR) |
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| Item Description: | ERIC Document Number: ED310456. ERIC Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (72nd, Washington, DC, August 10-13, 1989). |
| Physical Description: | 23 p. |