Word: localitis
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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Having established its claim to some type of local dominance, the Crimson travel to Colgate this weekend before returning home for its Ivy League opener against Dartmouth...
...result, you would have had no problem learning the latest presidential poll numbers from watching one of Boston's local newscasts, but you would have had some difficulty if you were curious about the substance and potential effects of the state's ballot questions. The PEJ survey gives credit to WBZ for having the least amount of horse race political coverage of Boston's three stations, but in Boston's market, relative success should not be mistaken for anything like actual success...
...course, the problems that face Boston's newscasts are not unique. The PEJ study reports that, overall, local crime was the topic that received the greatest amount of coverage on the stations it surveyed. The study also notes that 93 percent of the political stories on the stations it surveyed were about campaign tactics, rather than how candidates' proposals might affect people. However, the study also found that while stations might turn to topics such as crime to generate interest and maintain their viewers' attention, the stations that received the highest marks for quality were also the ones that...
...areas of weakness which can certainly be used as starting points for change. But the most telling of PEJ's criticisms and the one that would yield the best results if acted upon is the one about poor enterprise. Boston's stations devote so much coverage to topics like local crime not only because they think that doing so attracts viewers, but also because they are lazy...
...Local news directors and reporters need to overcome their inertia rather quickly if they want their newscasts to survive. In this age of the Internet, local television stations have to compete as fiercely as ever for an audience, and Boston's visually stimulating, melodramatic newscasts are not drawing viewers in but instead are leading even the most loyal ones away...