Internet Lecture

The lecture on internet in Mr. Miller's class was very good.  Who would've thought that one of the reasons internet started was because the government wanted a way to store information during the wars.   The internet really made everyone that stereotypical "nerd in the basement" and it is more socially acceptable since internet came around.  Unlike previous media's, the Internet impacted all media in some way because every media before the Internet, was put on the Internet.  Singers didn't have to search for a record label anymore.  They could post their singing on YouTube and get millions of hits.  Now, more than one-third of the people in the world get their news online.  Online news is better for some people because it is nonlinear so they can find the story and skip straight to the part they want to read rather than having to watch a whole news show to watch one story.  The Internet really did affect all previous medias and this lecture fully explained that.

Movie Theaters Survived?

Many of the other mediums Mr. Miller talked about in class demassified because of a new and upcoming technology.  It is weird to understand that movies theaters are still around and in fact never demassified.  A movie theater is a big part of a cultural experience.  Everyone wants to be able to say "I saw it first, and you should have been there".  This is part of the reason movie theaters survived.  Another reason is the social experiences.  People would rather go to the movies and hangout with friends than sit at home alone.  It is also an immersive experience.   There are the large screens, surround sound system, popcorn, and a dark quiet room.  These things are all things most people cannot have at their house.  This lecture helped explain why movie theaters are still around today.

Overuse of Stories?

The local television news station, WAVE, reported on a lot of crime stories; like already stated down below.  However, there was one trial that they repeated a story on every night, and that is the David Camm trial.  This story was important to the public, but the viewers did not need an update every time they watched the news.  They could have given an update on every mistrial leading up to the veridic, not guilty.  This trial was very easy for the station to report on.  They even had a whole Twitter account set up for the trial, devoted to giving play-by-play updates of the trial.  They were making the interesting sound important whether than the other way around.  They would play the same B-Roll on every update of Camm walking into the court house.  This story started to get old for viewers.

Too Many Sports and Weather?

WAVE, a local television news station had 30 minute shows.  During the 30 minute segment, they would usually only spend about 15 minutes of the show covering stories and the other half focusing on weather and sports.  This may be important to some people. but they are watching the NEWS.  It is meant to give the viewer news, not just updates on the weather forecast or the local high school football team.  Sometimes, WAVE would have a short weather section, then some local stories, then the rest of the weather.  It is not necessary.  They only need to play the weather once.  Also,  it is not necessary to get updates from every local sports team when it is easily available on the Internet.

Focus on Local Stories

One positive thing the local news station, WAVE, did was it did focus a lot on local stories whereas stations like WDRB reported many national and international stories.  This could be good or bd depending on what the viewer is looking for.  It is a local television news station, so it should be focusing on the local stories, but it also may need to play some national stories that could affect the viewers.  The viewers of the show also would like to know what is happening in the US so if they did more national stories, they may get more viewers.

Crime Stories too Much?

Many local news stations report mainly on crime stories.  One station in particular, WAVE, focused mainly on crime stories and almost half of the show would be crime stories.  It usually averaged about 6 crime stories a night.  This is not good.  The station needs to focus on the other more important news stories happening in the local community.  They may be reporting solely on crime stories just because they are very easy to report.  They just have to play some B-Roll and interview a few people.  However, we do know that the local news stations focus too much on local crime stories.

Response to Olivias Blog

http://olivialoy.blogspot.com/2013/11/news-good-on-more-positive-note-wdrb.html#comment-form

In this blog post, Olivia discusses a good factor of WDRB.  She discusses the fact that they usually have about four international stories unlike some of the other local news stations that barely have any.  It is good to point out the positives of the station.  She backed up her argument of this well by saying that the other news stations do not provide many international stories.  This lets the reader know that if they want more international stories, then watch WDRB.  Olivia did a great ob discussing the positives of the WDRB news station.