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TV think tank study has
bad news for WDIV and WXYZ
By Tim Kiska / Detroit News Television Writer
Two Detroit TV newscasts
are doing a less than stellar job, according to a study
released Wednesday.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington,
D.C., think tank associated with Columbia University,
studied the newscasts of Channels 4 (WDIV) and 7 (WXYZ)
along with 41 other television stations in markets
ranging from Billings, Mont., to New York, Los Angeles,
Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.
The Detroit stations covered in the study did not do
well: Channel 4's 11 p.m. newscast earned a C from the
study, while Channel 7 scored a D. Of the 43 stations
studied, Detroit's NBC and ABC affiliates ranked 29th
and 35th respectively. Nationally, eight stations
received As, eight got Bs, 15 got Cs, 10 received Ds and
two stations failed outright.
Newscasts on
channels 2 (WJBK), 50 (WKBD) and 62 (WWJ) were not
included in the study, which judged a week of news
broadcasts in February and another week in April and
graded WDIV and WXYZ on the range of stories covered in
a newscast, how much and how well the stations focused
on "significant issues and ideas," and how
often a station cited multiple and/or authoritative
sources in covering the news.
The news chiefs of the two Detroit stations had
differing reactions to the study.
"I find it to be somewhat tainted research,"
says Channel 7 news director Bill Carey. "I think
it's somewhat opinionated, somewhat predisposed to an
idea of what quality television news should be, and
slanted in the direction of their view -- which is 'if
you go out and do news the way we (the study directors)
say it should be done, you'll succeed.'
"We think we're better than a D, and Channel 4 is
better than a C. Having said that, we're big enough to
receive the report, review it and take a look at the
criticisms and feedback."
Channel 4 acting news director Regent Ducas was
unconcerned with his station's grade.
"I don't put a lot of energy and effort into
examining these studies," Ducas says. "We're
comfortable with the fact that our viewers are the jury,
and they decide on a daily basis whether or not we're
doing our job."
However, Teresa Tomeo, a former reporter at Channels 7
and 50, thinks the study was "right on
target."
"This study pinpoints the problem: lack of quality,
too much crime coverage and not enough experienced
journalists on the staff," Tomeo says.
Here's how the study assessed the two Detroit stations:
Channel 4
The station supplied viewers with plenty of
investigations, and "was very relevant to its
viewing area." However, the study directors wrote
that Channel 4 "did a poor job of presenting a
variety of opinions in its reports and nearly half of
its stories focused on everyday incidents or mundane
crimes." And even some of the investigations were
dealt with in a sensationalistic manner.
Carl Gottlieb, director of the study, pointed to a
Channel 4 investigation into a club that catered to
teen-agers, allegedly by serving them alcohol. "You
determine that teen-agers want to drink beer, have sex
and don't behave well? Is that the biggest problem in
Detroit that day?"
Channel 7
Channel 7 spent less time focusing on everyday crime
than most stations, and did uncommonly well using expert
sources to explain stories. But the station relied too
heavily on reports from news wires, according to the
report. In addition, "only a fraction of a percent
of stories were based on enterprise reporting."
Ironically, Channel 7 has won numerous awards in recent
years for its investigations. And only last week,
Mediaweek magazine, an industry trade publication, named
Channel 7 as one of the country's top 10 quality
stations.
Researchers looked at two weeks of newscasts: the week
of February 12-16, which is a "sweeps" period
in which stations generally lay out their flashiest
product to gain ratings; and April 9-13.
In total, the project examined some 6,000 stories from
among 430 newscasts. Gottlieb thinks the two Detroit
stations pointed to bigger problems in local TV news:
Shrinking budgets, shrinking audiences and increasing
economic pressure to make money.
"We're not putting this out to say 'shame, shame,'
or to embarrass anybody. We're putting this out to show
people that there is an alternative," he says.
The study released was the fourth annual look at local
TV news, and how it serves the public.
"What we're asserting, more than ever, is that
quality sells," Gottlieb says. "It's
Journalism 101. We're not expecting everybody to be 60
Minutes, because that's not going to happen.
"The best way to hold on to your market share, to
have good audience retention, to do well in the key
demographics groups, is to do a good job covering the
news. That means sourcing your stories better, running
longer stories -- contrary to popular belief, that works
-- and hire more reporters. And when you hire more
reporters, give them the time and the resources to do
their work."
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