'Lorraine' Needs Our Help: How and Why Local TV News Tries t

Discussion of performing arts, including theatre, film, television, and music.
Post Reply
User avatar
solicitr
Posts: 3728
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:37 pm
Location: Engineering a monarchist coup d'etat

'Lorraine' Needs Our Help: How and Why Local TV News Tries t

Post by solicitr »

This is a very interesting piece by a veteran reporter, discussing how marketers and consultants have made local TV news what it is today (no, that's not a good thing).
For thirty years in the TV news business, I sat through more meetings with management and consultants than I care to count, and the general tone of those meetings was usually this: the viewers don’t know crap, and without our help, they/she would wither into oblivion. Check out this research we were handed that told us who our typical viewer was, and who we wanted to attract.

OUR VIEWER IS:

25-34 Woman
High school educated
Has Kids
Service worker
Mid-downscale
Owns small house
Lives paycheck to paycheck
Shops at Wal-Mart
Needs our help

We came up with a name for this woman, “Lorraine.”

‘Lorraine’ Needs Our Help: How and Why Local TV News Tries to Scare Women
Top
User avatar
Primula Baggins
Living in hope
Posts: 40005
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:43 am
Location: Sailing the luminiferous aether
Contact:
Contact Primula Baggins

Post by Primula Baggins »

I read the whole article, solicitr, and it sums up pretty neatly why I stopped watching local television news many years ago. Though the real catalyst was when the local CBS affiliate fired their longtime anchor, a respected local journalist, because he turned 50 and there were prettier men in the wings.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Top
User avatar
solicitr
Posts: 3728
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:37 pm
Location: Engineering a monarchist coup d'etat

Post by solicitr »

And just for contrast, a living fossil- an actual, bona fide (and old) reporter on local TV news. Compare this to the mindless dreck one usually gets at 6PM, 5 Central and Mountain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP2ODx9x ... r_embedded
Top
User avatar
solicitr
Posts: 3728
Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:37 pm
Location: Engineering a monarchist coup d'etat

Post by solicitr »

And for a look at the transatlantic version of the same banality, here's a demonstration by The Guardian's Charlie Brooker:

Charlie Brooker - How To Report The News
Top
User avatar
Frelga
Meanwhile...
Posts: 22484
Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:31 pm
Location: Home, where else

Post by Frelga »

:rofl:
I don't watch the TV news, normally. When I do... Well, I set such an example to my son that now I am trying to get him be less cynical of what he sees.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!
Top
User avatar
Túrin Turambar
Posts: 6153
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
Location: Melbourne, Victoria

Post by Túrin Turambar »

That was absolutely priceless.
Top
User avatar
Elentári
Posts: 5199
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:03 pm
Location: Green Hill Country

Post by Elentári »

:rofl: that is absolutely brilliant - and spot on!!!
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes
Top
Post Reply

Return to “The Cottage of Lost Play”