Abstract
News investigations and curating user-generated content are upcoming trends at TV stations.
But with an explosion of digital options and a myriad of viewing devices, the question for broadcasters is: “How do we bring the public information it doesn’t already know?” Stations in the US appear to be looking at putting more resources into news investigations and in fact checking viewer submitted reports. If legacy news organisations don’t adapt and hold on too tightly to the way things used to be, they risk letting nostalgia put them out of business.
Data suggests that the audience for television news is “greying”. Today, only a third of Americans aged 18-29 say they regularly watch television news programmes. Globally, only those age 45 and older consider television their main news source. Traditional broadcasters have to try to attract younger audiences – via online, mobile or new digital devices developed in the future – while also embracing the 24/7 news cycle and adapting to the decline of appointment viewing.
Shrinking TV news audiences since the 1990s heyday have hit advertising revenues in the US. Add to this the economic downturn of 2008-2009 and the explosion of digital competitors chasing the same advertisers, and, for a while, the future looked grim. In 2008, the TV news workforce in the US was reduced by 4.3 per cent, with another decrease of 1.5 per cent in 2009. Since then, however, things have improved. By 2013, staffing levels were just a little below a record high seen in 2000.
Part of the reason for the improvement is the expansion of revenue streams. Television stations in the US now make a significant amount of money from cable companies paying retransmission fees. By using data compression techniques, a TV station can use its single TV signal to broadcast more than one programme simultaneously, a practice known as multicasting.
This changing business model, which still includes traditional advertising revenue, ensures the survival of television news in the near term. But TV news organisations cannot fully inoculate themselves from losses to digital competitors. If they want to retain a significant role in satisfying the public’s right to know, they have to rethink their content and delivery methods, too.
Despite the proliferation of sensationalised stories and shows stacked with celebrity news, smart TV managers understand that serious local coverage will help keep the best TV stations in business well into the future. Understanding the importance of strong journalism, some local television stations have recently ramped up or recommitted themselves to producing more watchdog and investigative journalism. The executive director of the US-based Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) organisation says that its 2014 conference hosted one of the largest contingents of broadcast journalists ever. Gannett, one of the biggest TV news companies in the US, sent 150 journalists to the event.
ABOVE: HBO series The Newsroom attempts to capture life at a modern TV news channel
Credit: HBO/Everett/Rex
Recent investigative “wins” for local television stations in the US include a station in Houston, Texas uncovering evidence of widespread food stamp fraud, a station in Los Angeles that exposing a lax regulatory regime that led to tour bus accidents and a 40-part investigation by a station in New Orleans that revealed how a local coroner had wasted millions of tax dollars – a story that ended with him pleading guilty in federal court. All of these stories helped protect the interests of local citizens and helped make local audiences better informed.
Only a third of Americans aged 18-29 regularly watch television news programmes
But it would be naive to think quality content alone can keep television news organisations in business. The power shift from news producers to news consumers is now permanent. No longer is the top-down “we decide what news is” approach going to work. The audience is now generating and distributing video news content itself, and television news organisations must take on a new role of curator to help viewers sift through and understand the mountains of information available to them.
One of the best-known examples of a television news organisation that has institutionalised this user-generated content is CNN’s iReport. The initiative was launched in 2006 as a way to allow people from all around the world to contribute pictures and video of breaking news stories. According to the website, the unit’s producers handle submissions from 750,000 registered members, which translates into an average of 500 iReports a day. A fraction of those are vetted and approved for CNN’s newscasts or other digital platforms, but CNN has recognised that reporting the news is now much more about two-way communication. Listening is key; not only will audiences tell you what kinds of stories they do and don’t like, but they also often have their own stories or specialised information to share, which can add an entirely new layer to news coverage.
The ability to crowdscource the news has the potential to make the public better informed
Local TV news operations are also routinely using user-generated content during breaking news situations and for special event coverage. This ability to crowdsource the news has the potential to make the public better informed.
The fact that technological developments have prompted more people to take an active role in creating and sharing news – including video – will help sustain the medium for years to come. Television is a form of journalism that continues to wield great power, generate great profits and command massive audiences. If redefined to include video news in general, those audiences become even larger and more significant.
On the other hand, there are plenty of chances for TV news to make a mess of things. Those who lead newsrooms can turn away from relevant and important news coverage and risk long-term survival for short-term audience gains. They can ignore the power of the audience and forgo the opportunity to add new voices to their coverage. And they can become too narrowly focused on distributing their journalism through a big box in the living room. However, the smart bet says they won’t.
“Local TV news will reinvent itself – again”
In the mid-1990s, Gerry Wardwell remembers laughing with fellow TV news journalists at actress Michelle Pfeiffer, playing a broadcaster effortlessly filming live shots in front of a prison riot. Pfeiffer’s character in Up Close & Personal clearly didn’t have to worry about hooking up countless cables to a news truck. “It was like magic,” he says. “But now that is a reality.” Today, everything is immediate.
Wardwell’s career spans over 10 stations and almost 30 years. He has produced broadcasts, created morning shows, and currently serves as assistant news director at WCVB-TV Channel 5 in Massachusetts. During this time, the industry has transformed by new technology.
The challenge is how do you make news compelling if everyone already knows it?
“Today’s newsrooms are heavily digital, with journalists glued to devices,” says Wardwell. “Technology just keeps getting better. Local TV news has changed so much in the past 30 years, but I think it will reinvent itself again.” As the web creates more consumer choice and more personalisation, he believes local TV stations will increasingly become the verifier, confirming or denying things people have read online.
In his earlier years, smaller news services were practically married to wire services, staff used typewriters, and nothing was immediate. The reporter would often drive hundreds of miles for a story and then hundreds of miles back to record it. Once, in the 1980s Wardwell’s station in Georgia covered a funeral in Washington state and the station flew the report back to Georgia for transmission; now that footage is transmitted digitally. “That idea would give a news director a heart attack now,” says Wardwell of the delay.
Social media has been the biggest change. “You can find out things now without a TV newsroom,” he says. “The challenge is how do you make news interesting and compelling if everyone already know it?” For Wardwell, Twitter has become a wire service and a way to connect instantly with audiences. “As a journalist you’re always thinking, how can I use this [social media] to drive people to this story, this broadcast,” he says.
Wardwell still walks into the WCVB newsroom every day, loaded with new ideas. “I’m not shocked by any of the changes,” he says. “It’s just the news now never stops.”
© Taylor Walker
Footnotes
