Final Project

My analysis of determining whether or not the diverse cast of news reporters and anchors of local news stations are differentiated by the news stories they report came with an in-depth outcome of which I had definitely anticipated.

I used a content analysis method to evaluate my study of the news station I evaluated. I believe that the method I have chosen is definitely the most appropriate of all the methods since my study is mostly based on statistics and numbers.

My analysis covers the course of a 48-hour period by watching the local 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. news on Channel 4 (KDFW) on the date of May 30 and May 31. In my group project, my responsibility was to watch the news and take note of my observations. The amount of time that the 5 p.m. news was cast was an average of 22 minutes and 18 minutes for the 6 p.m. news.

The information I specifically gathered were the news reporters’ name, length of story, genre of the story, and whether or not there was a reporter on site.

The corpus of my analysis is the early evening news, specifically the 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. news for the dates of May 30, May 31, & June 1 on KDFW Channel 4 based out of Dallas. Some of the news reporters and anchors on the Channel 4 news staff consist of Clarice Tinsley, Baron James, Steve Eagar, Heather Hays, John Hammerley, Jeff Crilley, Rebecca Aguilar, Ebony Thomas, Shaun Rabb, Emily Lopez, and Dan Henry.

The head anchors at the 5p.m. news, Clarice Tinsley and Baron James are both of African-American descent and they both have been at Channel 4 for a long period of time. If I recall correctly, Clarice has been at Channel 4 for over 20 years. Clarice typically reports stories of the war in Iraq, a segment called “Business Line”, and stories involving particular individuals who are improving their communities. Baron specializes in current events and human studies stories. A story that Baron reported on May 31 was about how music can affect chronic pain that people suffer on a regular basic.

Steve Eagar and Heather Hays are newer Caucasian anchors that have been at Channel 4 for around 5 years. They both specialize in current events, crime, and the war in Iraq. From an observation, I gathered that in the beginning of a news cast, he is the first person the cameraman focuses on. Steve is usually paired with Heather Hays at 6 p.m.

The health and wellness reporter John Hammerley is Caucasian has been with Channel 4 for about 7 years. His segments usually last for about 2 to 3 minutes long and he comes on usually 3-4 times a week.

Rebecca Aguilar is an onsite reporter who has been at KDFW for about 5 years. Rebecca’s stories in the past couple days have been specifically about crime and special interest in the North Dallas area. I’ve noticed her segments are usually shorter than the other anchors.

The next main anchor is Shaun Rabb; he is an African-American who has been with Channel 4 for about 10 years now. Shaun’s stories are certainly much more in-depth than many other stories I’ve watched. His focus is specifically special interest in the Dallas area. On May 30, Channel 4 aired a segment about Destiny Terrell, a 19 year old black Dallas girl who was in an accident last year and was unable to graduate high school because of her accident. However, she tried to graduate this year, but Dallas ISD denied her a diploma because she was constantly given the wrong exit exam.

Jeff Crilley and Emily Lopez are two newer reporters who have been at Channel 4 for less than 5 years. They both focus more towards special interest stories in different parts of the metroplex. Jeff Crilley started out with a segment called “Really Crilley” which aimed towards more comedic or bizarre news stories. However, Channel 4 canceled that about 2-3 years ago after poor ratings.

As per my review of literature goes, this study finalized a bit more different than I thought. There wasn’t a direct study that I was able to compare with; however, I was able to gather from my previous observation and my recent study of Channel 4. Since my study was mainly something that consisted of me observing one channel, I provided the link to the KDFW Fox 4 news website.

http://www.kdfwfox4.com

I also analyzed the study of viewership in the morning and evening news on the journalism.org website.

http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2006/index.asp

Research Questions

For the basis of the study, I wanted to compose a question that would both answer why the anchors at Channel 4 are given various air time depending on their seniority at that particular station and whether or not each reporter or anchor had a pre-determined audience they cast their news towards. A content analysis was determined to be the most appropriate method for this study due to the subject matter being analyzed.

Overall, hypothesizes that I gathered for this study are:

1) How is the diverse cast of news reporters or anchors differentiated by the stories they report?

2) Is each news reporter trying to target a specified type of audience?

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Report:

(Since this is my only news source I use)this news station is un-bias on most levels except for one. The levels of I reviewed were experience, race, reporting style, dress attire, and type of story. The level that Channel 4 failed to pass was experience. I gathered that reporters and anchors that have the least amount of experience get less face time on television than those who are more experienced. I believe that not only Channel 4 does this, but all the other local news stations do this because viewership in the early evening hours are considerably higher than in the morning or late night according to the journalism.org website.

Moving back to the story about Shaun Rabb reported on May 30^th. Being an African-American himself and reporting a story about an African-American girl who lives in Dallas, is there a particular reason why he was chosen for the story? I sent an e-mail after the news story aired to see if there was a particular explanation for why he was decided to do the story and not another reporter. My e-mail was not responded to (perhaps due to time constraints), but I am still interested in knowing whether or not there was a motive in mind.

In conclusion, a final analogy was somewhat reached, however, due to the time constraint, I wasn’t able to do the study that I had planned. However, I did determine that Channel 4 does slightly bias its reporters with the news stories that they report based on their seniority at the station. I could not determine completely whether or not the reporters chose stories based on their particular race or interest, such as my study with Shaun Rabb stated above.

I believe that segregating news stories based on the reporter’s race is not civil in any manner and I’m not accusing Channel 4 of doing so, however, giving the reporters who have higher seniority a better news story to report is sometimes acceptable due to their experience and perhaps their reporting style. I’m sure many people would rather hear news about the war in Iraq or September 11 from someone like Anderson Cooper or Ted Koppel than someone from a local station who has been a journalist with less than 5 years experience.

My groups links:
kihenia.blogspot.com
emmalinet.blogspot.com