How To Prevent Bullying
Did you know 65% of Americans believe misinformation from the news is a problem? For several years I worked in the promotions department at a local news station. The reporters I worked with were extremely kind and dedicated to what stories they were covering. Most of the sources for their news stories either came from respected sources like the Associated Press, local sources like police/firemen, governors, mayors and of course their own research to name a few. Sitting in on the morning news meetings and listening to what the news reporters and News Director decided on what they would report on that day was decided by what the community audience would be most interested in. There was pure dedication and truth in everything they talked about.
Then there is another reality. TV stations run on ratings. There is a company in New York called Nielson and their sole purpose is to research and rate each TV station in the USA based on what audiences are watching nationally and locally. They do this 4 times a year. Every TV station would like to be the highest rated. Does this slant what might be reported? Possibly. I never felt the news department I worked at would sensationalize or fake the news to get a higher rating. This is not to say there aren’t stations that do this. Even as a promotions writer I would be very careful to not use words that would lead an audience to think our station was faking or sensationalizing the news.
The one thing that could possibly affect the news being reported is advertisers. This is because advertisers want to air their ads on stations that have the highest ratings because they have more viewers. Of course, advertisers want to latch onto the largest audience possible. It’s the sales department of a TV station that sells airtime to advertisers. Yes, I’ve seen the Sales Manager meet with the News Director. But most of the time they met to come up with news specials that advertisers might want to sponsor. Meaning they would pay for their name and product to be placed in between news stories as commercials or to have their name mentioned at the top of the news show. I do know that sometimes if certain news stories attract more viewers, then advertisers are more likely to want to advertise in that news program. I have seen favoritism toward certain stories for this reason.
The beast of TV news is deadlines and editing them to fit into the length of the news program. Many times, editors for time’s sake must edit down what people are saying on camera. Can this create fake news? Never at the station I worked at. And if there was any controversary about a news report it was quickly and honestly corrected.
To me real news is when reporters do what I learned from Joan London (former host for the show ‘Good Morning America’). They tell the facts and should never give their opinion. I am grateful to know I worked at a news station that didn’t report fake news and only reported real news. Integrity at its best and this is exactly what A Premiere Production strives for when writing, producing a project.
