Demolishing the iron myths of TV news
Our columnist Raymond Snoddy on some research into TV news that the marketing community should pay attention to.
Wally Dean is not exactly a name to conjure with in the UK media world. But he has done something truly remarkable. With extensive, careful research he has challenged, and indeed to a very considerable extent over-turned, some of the most heart-felt myths of the television news business.
The unassuming American from The Project For Excellence in Journalism turned 350 TV news executives inside out last week at the News Xchange conference in Malta.
It was simple really. He set them the task of constructing a TV news bulletin from items that included: suspicious white powder found at post office, emergency airplane landing after worrying note is found, body found in exclusive area by police, late night press conference called at City Hall and Bobo the elephant escapes from local zoo.
To choose from there was also: Martial law declared in Pakistan after murder of official, funding cuts could prompt school lay-offs and budget shortfall could mean big cuts in road repairs.
The stories had of course an American feel to them although Wally Dean has also done work in Europe, including with the BBC.
No prizes for guessing the “answer.”
Wherever they came from, commercial television or public service broadcasting, the vast majority loved the first list and tended to overlook the second. It was close to being a universal news culture – the result of a series of knee-jerk reactions handed down through the generations.
They liked the drama of the white powder even though most white powder scares turn out not to be anthrax and the great pictures of the airport emergency landing even though nothing had actually happened and it was a false alarm.
The whirling lights and the police cordon at the murder scene was top-notch television and you simply had to cover live the “breaking news” at City Hall even though they has no idea what it was going to be about.
Naturally they tended to overlook the boring budget stories even though they might directly affect the lives of their viewers.
Nice exercise to enliven an otherwise tedious afternoon conference session before everyone wandered off to the slap-up CNN dinner.
It was certainly that. But it had rather more substance. The exercise was based on a five-year $1million research project which analysed more than 2,400 newscasts and compared then with the detailed ratings they obtained.
As a result Wally Dean and has been able to set out, and demolish, most of the iron myths that dominate television news.
They include the belief that immediacy is the most important value. In fact audiences tend to be turned off by being offered poorly researched, incomplete news just because it’s happening now. Police flashing lights and crime scenes always hooks the audience goes another myth. In fact such pictures are usually boring and repetitive and there is no statistical basis for the idea that they help attract and retain audience.
Another myth suggests that every lead story must have a live shot complete with reporter at the scene. In the British context this often translates into live reporter standing in the dark or rain outside an unlit Government building where everyone has long since gone home. The research found that having a reporter live on the scene, or reporting stories live just because you can, plays no part in retaining or building audiences.
Then there are what Dean calls “hollow” live stories – live for live sake even though nothing much is happening.
Foreign and international news is a big turn-off and local and domestic is always best?
The evidence found a considerable level of interest in important international stories and, even more significant for commercial broadcasters, that new and important foreign news stories did not lose viewers.
One more myth – though Wally has got many more – that viewers won’t watch long pieces about issues. Wrong. Short policy issues got the same ratings as spot news items. But as stories about issues get longer something fascinating happens. They are more likely to hold or even increase their audience.
Can it be after all that the audience is a lot smarter than TV news editors think and that vacuous nonsense might not be such good business after all?
The lesson for Dean is that lazy, ill-thought, automatic pilot news is an audience turn-off but that what he called “enterprise” news, where brains are engaged and extra effort is made to tell a story, is rewarded. Better told stories could even help television news fight back against the internet.
Wally Dean’s book written with other researchers – We Interrupt This Newscast- How To Improve Local News and Win Ratings Too – should be mandatory reading in all TV newsrooms.
The marketing community – certainly any members interested in advertising around news, should also pay attention. It would also suggest that the ad breaks in the reliably excellent Channel 4 News might repay a further look.
There was also some rather better news about the news at the Malta conference.
Influence, the company that monitors news, broadcast, print and digital, in 160 countries produced a global ranking of broadcast news stories for the year until September 14.
The top fifteen stories were all intensely serious. The top five were the global financial crisis, election and inauguration of Barack Obama, Global Warming, Afghanistan War and Swine Flu.
The Death of Michael Jackson came in only at 16 and 19th place went to the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Wally Dean would doubtless approve.
Do you agree with Raymond? Send us your opinion – news@mediatel.co.uk