newscast
... area. This is clear evidence of “if it bleeds it leads” type news. Rather than having the news team spend three minutes on the issue of Bush’s tour to Asia and what that will mean to this country, or on the toughing of Nuclear inspections in Iran, they knew that more viewers would want to see what happened with a “shooting rampage” and therefore tune in. Therefore the entertainment factor of news is showing its influence on what story will be leading and talked about so they can receive higher viewer ratings. Soon after the shooting segment, Leyna quickly jumped into the Hurricane threatening Florida. She stated that the Hurricane was now in Central America headed for Florida by Tuesday. Dave then followed by showing some Cancun tourists “partying to the Bee Gee’s” showing that even though a Hurricane might hit them, they are not letting that get their spirits down. This is the most blatant use of “happy” news I have ever seen. What does a bunch of tourists partying at a resort have anything to do with issues or events that affect me? Absolutely nothing but viewers like “happy” news and seeing people have a good time on vacation, so, they show this story and talk about it like it’s a big event in the world. The Cancun party was then followed by an interest story listing the safest cities in America. Dave made sure his co-anchor Leyna know that he felt “amazed that four cities in California were named to the list.” While this story is interesting and makes people feel good that they live in a safe neighborhood, it has no value in informing society of problems or issues affecting our lives. The news is not informing but rather catering to our desires to see something catastrophic or overly joyful. Another disturbing characteristic of the news was the amount of commercials that were present. Every ten minutes in the program the news went to a commercial showing that news was sponsored by some company, for example Stater Bros. Then once you were pummeled by the amount of commercials they decided to go into the weather where Leyna and Dave continually asked the weather man, Josh Rubenstein, what the weather would be like tomorrow or “when is this heat going to stop?” After the weather forecast, some bantering and laughing back and forth between the anchors and the weather man occurred for about two minutes. Not once before had the anchors really talked to one another however after the weather they felt it appropriate to talk and joke with one another for two minutes instead of diving into another story of importance. What is news? News is an “entertainment informant.” The news tries to ap...