A. Time

     Time each item on a half-hour evening TV newscast. Make a log of subject matter, the placement of items in the newscast and the amount of time given each item.
     Then compare the space given these items in the next day's newspaper.
     Also, compare the play in the newspaper with the placement on the TV newscast. Was the lead item on the newscast given major play by the newspaper?
     With whose decisions on time-space and play do you find you agree? Why?

B. Wasteland Revisited

     Here are excerpts from an article by Newton Minow, who as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the early '60s described television as a "vast wasteland." This article, "How Vast the Wasteland Now?" was written 35 years after he made that assessment:

     One evening as I watched, with my remote control in hand, I flipped through the channels and saw a man loading his gun on one channel, a different man aiming a gun on a second, and another man shooting a gun on a third. And if you don't believe me, try it yourself. I think the most troubling change over the past 30 years is the rise in the quantity and quality of violence on television. In 1961 I worried that my children would not benefit much from television, but now I worry that my grandchildren will actually be harmed by it. One recent study shows that by the time a child is 18 he has seen 25,000 murders on television. In 1961 they didn't make PG-13 movies, much less NC-17. Now a 6-year-old can watch them on cable....
     In the last 30 years, the television marketplace has become a severely distorting influence in at least four important public areas. We have failed 1) to use television for education; 2) to use television for children; 3) to finance public television properly; and 4) to use television properly in political campaigns....
     ... Bob Keeshan, our Captain Kangaroo for life, has seen how television for children all over the world is designed to be part of the nurturing and educational system. But "in America," he says, "television is not a tool for nurturing. It is a tool for selling."
     ... Studies of political campaigns show that the average block of uninterrupted speech by a presidential candidate on network newscasts was 9.8 seconds; in 1968 it was 42.3 seconds. As Walter Cronkite observed, this means that "issues can be avoided rather than confronted." And David Halberstam adds, "Once the politicians begin to talk in such brief bites ... they begin to think in them."
     A United States senator must now raise $12,000 to $16,000 every week to pay for a political campaign, mostly to buy time for television commercials. A recent United Nations study revealed that only two countries, Norway and Sri Lanka (in addition to the United States), do not provide free airtime to their political parties. If we are to preserve the democratic process without corrupting, unhealthy influences, we must find a bipartisan way to provide free time for our candidates and stop them from getting deeply in hock to special interests in order to pay for television commercials.

     Do you think the situation today is better, worse or the same as when Minow made his criticism? Why?

C. Responsibility

     Here are some comments by Patricia Dean, of the broadcasting department of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Do you agree with her?

     We found [in a content analysis of 10 local TV markets] that almost 30 percent of the time spent on local TV news was devoted to crime and court stories. Ten percent was devoted to reporting calamities and natural disasters. Government and politics accounted for little more than 15 percent. Two critical areas were almost nonexistent. Education stories totaled a mere 2 percent. Race relations totaled 1.2 percent.
     Consultants tell us we should report stories the viewers care about.... How can they care if they don't know about it? They don't care because we give them no reason to care. This is our job as journalists.
     Every station is under tremendous pressure to keep costs as low as possible. Breaking news that is crime- and crisis-driven is cheap to cover and easy to cover. Murders, fires and traffic accidents require little background research.
     As a profession, we cannot afford to throw up our hands saying there is nothing we can do. We cannot afford to blame the consultants, the accountants and business owners. Journalists must take responsibility and take back the decision-making process.