Two recent polls show that a majority of Americans rely on TV for their news, but I'm guessing few of those Americans realize the information they are hearing from the "talking heads" actually comes from newspaper reports.
OK, calling TV news anchors "talking heads" might be a bit harsh. But you have to realize I come from a newspaper background and I find it hard to believe so many people just watch TV for their news rather than reading a newspaper.
Let's start with the stats:
According to the survey released Sept. 13 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 71 percent of those surveyed said they got most of their national and international news from television. That compares to 33 percent who said they rely on newspapers. For local news, 64 percent said they got most of their news from TV compared to the 41 percent who said they relied on newspapers for the majority of their news.
A second poll, released Sept. 16 and conducted by the First Amendment Center, indicated that 49 percent of those interviewed considered TV news shows as their first source for major news. Only 10 percent said they went to the newspaper first, according to that same poll.
With such striking numbers, I thought it might be a good idea to explain to folks where TV and radio broadcasters get much of their news.
Even in this day of shrinking staffs, newspapers have more reporters than TV or radio stations. Larger newspapers usually have at least one beat reporter to cover city government, state government, federal government, schools and other specialty areas. TV and radio stations usually only send a reporter when a large news story breaks.
In addition, many smaller communities have a local newspaper with reporters and sometimes even citizen journalists who cover their specific community. TV and radio stations rarely have reporters they can send out to cover a smaller community unless the news is earth shattering.
The articles that are produced by the newspaper reporters are sent to a wire service, which then sends out a rewritten version of the original to TV and radio stations. Stations either use the wire service rewrites verbatim or send out a reporter to get their own story if they think it is good enough. Those are the stories you hear on the morning and evening news broadcasts.
I should know. I did the rewrites when I worked nights at the Associated Press many years ago. But if you doubt what I say, take a day and compare the content of the daily newspaper with the content in daily news broadcasts.
Without newspapers and their reporters, I'm not sure what TV and radio stations would do for a lot of their stories. We certainly don't want them to rely on someone's opinionated blog. That's why I so strongly believe citizen journalists can come to the rescue. That's also why I so strongly believe in the training offered by the National Association of Citizen Journalists. With proper training, citizen journalists can gather news in an accurate and unbiased manner. Their news reports can supplement the information offered by our daily newspapers, as well as the TV and radio broadcasts. That way we can get the real news, not just some talking head's ideologic opinion.