How to Watch TV News
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The big picture of How to Watch TV News is that it is a frame of reference for critical thinking about television journalism, or, more generally, mass-market merchandising of the presentation to the public of information that is called--but is not necessarily--news. Taking as its starting point the fact that access to news means, or more exactly is widely believed to mean, access to informed perspective on what is important to understand about the culture, the political environment, and the status of social and personal well-being, How to Watch takes the view that the form (usually) and content (frequently) of television journalism increasingly tend toward having entertainment rather than information value. The result is that television news is performance masquerading as presentation. And in consequence, argue the authors, the news (so to speak) is not good.How to Watch provides relatively arcane information about the attributes of what and who it takes to get television news broadcast. It explains the duties of on-air and behind-the-camera personnel, from reporters and camera crew in the field to floor managers in the studio and news directors in the assignment office to the on-camera anchors. But mere explanation and information are hardly the whole story. The authors also dissect and analyze the foundations of news broadcasts, which they argue have most to do with corporate and marketing interests. For whatever else is true about television news available on cable and c
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iting manner; however, viewers, or consumers, of television news are equally culpable, as for example when their principal comment on news broadcasts has less to do with the issues involved than with the appearance of the broadcaster. Postman and Powers cite the liberal use of "focus groups" (pp. 33-4), which provide opinions about so-called TVQ, or the watchability quotient, of presenter-performers. Meanwhile, of course, the corporatist-marketing element of TV news is busily engaged at keeping viewers engaged, which does much to explain the news-sports-weather-feature format that enables broadcasters to keep the mood light, and try to leave the viewer with a smile" (p. 37). Smiling viewers, the theory seems to be, are more likely than unsmiling ones to remain seated and viewing the "news" station to which they are tuned than to trouble themselves with changing a channel. The authors cite the appearance of chaotically ordered stories in a typical newscast, noting, however, that it is only appearance and that story order "is really orchestrated to draw the audience from one story to the next--from one section to the next--through the commercial breaks to the end of the show" (1992, pp. 111-112).
How to Watch is very much an exerci
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Approximate Word count = 1619
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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