wfn.org | Professor challenges news industry

["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

Sept. 17, 1997
United Church of Christ
In Cleveland, contact: 
Hans Holznagel, (216) 736-2214            
In New York City:
William C. Winslow, (212) 870-2137                          
On the World Wide Web:
http://www.ucc.org

RADIO NEWSROOMS:  To receive a feed 
brief recorded excerpts from Mr. Lissit's
speech, phone Roy Lloyd, National Council 
of Churches, New York City, (212) 870-2312

Ditching `body bag journalism' may help local TV ratings,
Syracuse University professor tells communications industry

      NEW YORK CITY -- A former ABC, NBC and PBS news producer
today challenged any taker in the nation's largest TV market
to abandon the "body bag journalism" of excessive crime
reporting -- and the consultants who push it -- and test the
theory that better journalism would help a local station's
ratings.
      "Take the money you spend on consultants and hire a good
young reporter and a videographer," said Robert Lissit, now a
Syracuse University professor.  "Use the young team on crime
stories, and free a veteran team to do government stories and
enterprise reporting.  Cover education and consumer news and
race relations.  Do good, solid reporting.  At the end of the
year, I think your ratings may go up."
      There's evidence that "tabloid sensation" in TV news --
besides being bad for democracy -- is not always a ratings
winner, Lissit said, "and I'm willing to put my time where my
mouth is.  If you feel insecure without consultants, a group
of us at the Newhouse School of Public Communications in
Syracuse will provide our consulting services free of charge."
      Lissit was delivering the annual Everett C. Parker
Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture to a luncheon audience of
some 130 media-industry representatives, religious
communicators and students at The Interchurch Center on
Manhattan's Upper West Side.  
The event is sponsored by the communication offices of United
Church of Christ and the National Council of Churches.
      Lissit criticized the "market-driven" approach that
permeates local TV news all over the United States.  "Market-
driven news is giving the viewers what the stations think they
want," he said.  "Some might ask if that isn't simply
representative democracy at work:  `What could be more
democratic than giving viewers what they want?'  My answer: 
What could be more irresponsible, more cynical, and profoundly
wrong.
      "Viewers don't trust what they get on the news anymore. 
And that's a serious indictment."
      Lissit used video news clips to make two points: 
"yellow crime-scene tape and blood spattered on the pavement"
get a disproportionate amount of coverage, even though they do
not always guarantee Number One ratings; and yet, crime
coverage can still be part of responsible TV journalism.
      One clip, from Miami's Channel 7, was an evening-news
story on the arrest of a suspected hit-and-run driver, with a
hospital interview of the victim.  "In Miami, the prototype
for tabloid sensation, WSVN-TV, Channel 7, has viewers and
profits," Lissit said.  "But it's either second or third in
the ratings to a traditional news station."  A second clip
showed that this morning's local news break on a Syracuse
station consisted of three stories:  a 5-year-old hit by a
car, the apprehension of a murder suspect and a few reported
cases of tuberculosis of no danger to the public.
      Lissit showed a third clip, however, as an example of a
"good station," where "smart broadcasters have treated viewers
with respect and been rewarded for their actions."  It was a
soft feature on a hard topic from KOMO-TV, Seattle, with
children reflecting on a shooting that killed a child in their
neighborhood.  It was good because it offered "context,
texture, people, reason, emotion," Lissit said.
      "What's needed is a clear-cut demonstration that bad
coverage doesn't have to drive out good coverage," Lissit
said.  "And that the consultants aren't always right.  Take
control of your own newsroom.  Base your decisions on solid
journalistic principles."
      New York City would be ideal for such a test because
more than 42 percent of its local TV news coverage goes to
crime, criminal justice and disasters -- "in a city where
crime is down," Lissit said.  "How about the stations in New
York City declaring a peace dividend, returning a little of
the crime and disaster time to the viewers in the form of
government, race relations and education?" 
      Lissit highlighted what he and his Syracuse broadcast
journalism colleagues found in a recent study of 100 newscasts
around the country:  "Nearly 30 percent of the news time was
spent on crime and courts.  Ten percent was devoted to
reporting calamities and natural disasters.  Only 15 percent
of the newscasts were devoted to government and politics. 
Health and medicine:  about 7 percent.  Race relations:  1.2
percent.  Education:  less than 1 percent."
      Crime and the courts get covered because they're easy to
cover and consultants say they boost ratings, Lissit said.  "A
few shots of the crime scene, a quick interview with a police
officer, or someone in the neighborhood, and a quick
reporter-on-camera standup.  Summary, and that's the story. 
Off to cover another crime story.  Why courts?  Because they
follow a schedule, it's easy to show up and record the court
proceedings, and easy to get an emotional interview outside on
the steps.
      "Is this news?  Not by most traditional journalistic
standards."  Citing New York University professor Mitchell
Stephens, Lissit listed six "criteria for newsworthiness" and
said TV crime reporting meets only two of them -- timeliness
and proximity -- while failing to be important, of interest,
controversial or unusual.
      One problem with news overkill on crime and courts is
that it "has changed the balance in our carefully balanced
system of democracy," Lissit said.  "If the viewer sees the
courts in operation but doesn't see a city council meeting, or
sees the courts but seldom hears from the mayor, what does
that say to that viewer?  Maybe that there's only one branch
of government important to that viewer's life.  The only
representative of government is the police officer at the
crime scene."
      It is also a waste of news resources, Lissit said.  He
quoted former CBS-TV journalist Travis Lynn, now at University
of Nevada, Reno, as giving the following description of the
"team reporting" that many TV stations do:  "If a pedestrian
crosses in the middle of a street and is struck by a car, a TV
station may send out four reporters.  The first does a live
report on the accident.  The second asks, `What went wrong
that resulted in the pedestrian being struck?'  The third
reporter deals with what can be done to prevent this sort of
accident in the future.  And the fourth reporter tells you how
you can avoid being struck by a car.
      "That, says Travis Lynn, is disrespectful of the
viewer's intelligence.  And it ties up four reporters on a
story where one might well have been more than enough."
      Lissit said his offer to consult with a local TV station
was anything but idle.  He said he and his Newhouse School
colleagues, who have been studying newscasts and would do the
consulting, "aren't a bunch of ivory-tower researchers." 
Among them are a former news director and station manager, a
former network and network-owned-and-operated station anchor
and reporter, an executive producer from a major-market
station, a newsroom computer specialist and an investigative
producer.
      "We reject the world of tabloid news, and reports of
faceless crimes which don't touch viewers' lives.  We think
there are a lot of people out there who know the consultants'
formula is wrong.  If there's a news director out there who
hears this, and is willing to put himself or herself on the
line, let us hear from you."
      The United Church of Christ, with national offices in
Cleveland, has 1.5 million members and 6,100 local churches in
the United States and Puerto Rico.  Its annual Parker Lecture
honors the Director Emeritus of the UCC Office of
Communication, who retired in 1983 but who this year was added
to that office's team of consultants working on media
advocacy.
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