Posted on 10/13/2006 9:44:31 AM PDT by shrinkermd
Study: Midwest newscasts devote elections little time Local TV news directors apparently don't think their viewers are very interested in coverage of the upcoming elections, at least in the Midwest. A University of Wisconsin NewsLab study released yesterday showed that local stations in nine major markets in the Midwest, including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis and Milwaukee, showed an average of 36 seconds of election news in their 30-minute evening news broadcasts for a month starting Sept. 7.
Not unexpectedly, advertising took up most of the 30-minute newscasts, at an average 10 minutes and seven seconds. Next was sports and weather at seven minutes and one second, and then crime at two minutes and 27 seconds. The only categories receiving less time than election news were foreign policy at 23 seconds and accidents that caused injuries at 11 seconds.
In the air time devoted to election coverage, the stations showed almost three times as many segments about strategy and who is likely to win as they did segments about the issues.
I watch very little local news anyway. Most of the news from Michigan I get right here at FR.
Not the local TV coverage anyway....
I'll bet more and more folks are getting their political news off the 'net.
Oh I get it, Bush country is dumb and votes Republican because they refuse to be informed on the issues..and the media Gods arent doing their jobs....
Yep, it's that whole "what's the matter with Kansas" attitude. According to the elitists of the upper West Side of Manhattan, Kansans don't vote in their own selfish economic interests. They don't vote the "correct" way because they aren't evaluating and weighing the issues properly. This article reinforces an idea that "middle America" is not being well informed. Thus, they can't make the "correct" choices on election day.
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