Hilary Golston Offical Website!
News Media is called the "fourth estate" for good reason. In "News that Matters" Shanto Iyengar and Donald Kinder characterize TV news as an "educator virtually without peer" that "shapes the American public's conception of political life in pervasive ways." Their conclusion is "television news is news that matters." News shapes public opinion and perception and sets the political agenda. I had an opportunity to witness this up close during this 2008 presidential primary season. I took some time in this historic primary season to indulge one of my greatest interests, politics. I campaigned for my candidate of choice in Iowa, South Carolina and Ohio. Campaigning for a candidate is perhaps the exact opposite of how a journalist might engage the primary process. Viewing the primary from a supporter's perspective made me acutely aware of how much sway reporters have over how candidates are perceived and subsequently the outcome of elections. The influence journalists have, however, is not limited to the political process.
News, and TV news in particular, has a reach of influence into almost all aspects of life, crime and punishment, access to information about traffic and weather conditions, civic connection, and knowledge about current domestic and international events. For example, although US crime rates have been declining since 1994, public perceptions about crime are much different. American citizens aren't checking out the FBI's uniform crime report. Instead, they are watching a 6:30 package on home invasions in their neighboring town. In his article, "Crime Creep: Urban & Suburban Crime on Local TV News" Danilo Yanich studies this phenomenon across 20 designated market areas across the country. He finds that local news is heavily responsible for the cognitive maps people use to relate to their communities. Local news impacts perceptions about crime so strongly because people still predominantly turn to local TV news for information about their communities, but that is changing.
TV news and TV journalists are an important part of our communities, but now they must compete with an increasingly broad spectrum of news outlets. Expanded access to a variety of media outlets forces journalists to provide a stronger product that is also engaging. TV News is changing, but it is changing for the better. In addition to expanded access is expanded technology, namely the internet. We need fresh ideas to tackle the mounting challenge of delivering high quality news in a multiplatform world. I'm not afraid to engage newer mediums and newer news delivery styles to ensure TV news remains relevant. I see my primary role as a reporter in an evolving news world as two fold. I see a need to continually consume national and local print news while enterprising my own stories, but I also think that reporters are tasked with considering the "online factor" in every piece they do. I think we should provide links to additional sources for online posts. I also think that a viewer should be able to click on video of a story and e-mail the reporter directly. Local TV news remains in a unique position. Multimedia newsrooms make local TV news a bridge between print and broadcast journalism where in an online world an infinite wealth of information and resources can be added to the mix.
I'm looking forward to contributing my part to an ever changing TV world and hopefully demonstrating in everything I do professionally as Iyengar and Kinder point out; "television news is news that matters."
