Exercise: After Reading the Following Account and Our Remarks, Watch

question 28

Essay

Exercise: After reading the following account and our remarks, watch a local news program and critically evaluate the newsworthiness of each story covered. How much is news and how much is entertainment?
"A shocking scene in a Lake Mary neighborhood tonight," began the anchorman. "A home surrounded by crime scene tape, and a death police are calling suspicious." Up on the screen flashed the words, "Neighborhood Shocker!"
"Police say they don't know much about the life of Betty Bracone," on-the-scene reporter Nicole Smith began. "They do know that she was 66 years old and she lived in this home. They do know she had a family and they found many pictures of children inside her home." Smith then segued to an interview with a policeman who said there was no forced entry, that everything in the house was intact and that nothing indicated a robbery.
"The autopsy will be held tomorrow and they're not exactly sure yet what they will find," Smith said. "So they want to keep a very tight lid on what happened.... Live in Lake Mary, Nicole Smith, Channel 6 News."
-From a report on Channel 6 News, Orlando, Florida
Remarks: Although this report filled the screen with the flashing lights of emergency vehicles and bright yellow crime-scene tape, it was remarkable mainly for being a complete nonstory. The 66-year-old Betty Bracone, it turned out, had died in her own bed of a heart attack, hardly a big news event. But the episode shows how local news programs will go to great lengths to produce an exciting news bit even though it is entirely hype. Every story like this takes up space that could have been devoted to real news.

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