Final Viewer Recommendations

"Is there anything else that you don't like about the way they do the news, any changes they could make which might get you to watch more often?"

Final Viewer Recommendations

When asked this question at the end of the survey, many viewers use the opportunity to elaborate further on some of the issues already discussed. They're especially adamant about having more positive stories, more localized news, less repetition, more down-to-earth anchors, and less sensationalism. Their other suggestions seem to vary by the size and location of their particular television market. However, the most universal recommendations are to have fewer commercial interruptions and more factual/unbiased reporting. A summary of these final recommendations is listed below in descending order by frequency:

1.) More Fair & Unbiased: "I would prefer that there be more reporting of the news and less commentary on the news. I don't mean commentary when it is stated that it will be commentary. But we've crossed the line and we've taken the eraser on the blackboard and smudged through. You can still SEE the news, but it's been blurred by commentary. And you're getting newscasters' opinions of what the news is rather than a true, pure statement of the news incident...People wanna know the truth of the situation. Make it more believable...Stations tend to speculate before they have the facts...They always have their own personal opinions or smart remarks...The most important job is to report accurately."

2.) More Positive Stories: "This would be a very positive way to get through to people to encourage them and help them to digest the bad [news] they've heard...So much of this negative stuff is depressing. [Why not cover] somebody who prevented a fire or saved a life?...I think that if they put on positive things and stopped pushing the issues about the crime and the criminals five or six times each night, it might be more interesting to sit down. It's kinda depressing, because every time you turn on the TV, all you hear is the bad guys, and it gets so you don't wanna hear it anymore...Lots of people in the community are doin' good things, and they're the ones we need to hold up and talk about, give the young people some goal to strive for. The average person is not a cop or a killer...It's all depressing, there's nothing positive to report...I feel strongly about the positive thing. We see so much negative on the news. I agree that it's news, but people helping people and doing things for others is also news."

3.) More Localized News: "More community happenings...There's a lot of rural communities out there that just aren't gettin' the coverage the big cities are, mine included...They focus too much on sports, and not enough on what's happening in the community...Cover more basic community-type events and not so much world news...They didn't even cover OUR Walkathon...I feel we need to know more about what's goin' on in our local area. Put more local news on. I know there's more that happens in our town than what gets on the news...Many times, they completely ignore local issues when there's catastrophes elsewhere in the country. We feel for these people, but still, I'd like to know more what's happening in my area."

4.) Less Repetitive: "I don't like to see a taped segment repeated over and over again, where you get up at 5:00 and they keep playin' it until 9:00...I don't watch the late news because it's the same as the morning news...The biggest thing is like when they're doing a live story like the bank robbery they did a few months back. They had continuous coverage for HOURS, and I think they just needed to break in and update people instead of continuously covering the same information over and over again...We have channels where news briefs come on at 5 o'clock, and then the REAL news comes on at 6. We've already heard it from 5-6, and then we hear it over again from 6-7...They do a lot of repetition. A lot of that is because they're on so much. There's so many hours of news on TV right now that I think they struggle to fill the time. So they repeat everything over and over and over again, the same thing. Find more variety. The reason I DON'T watch more often is because it IS repetitious."

5.) Change Format: "They hold off on the 5-Day forecast to the end, and I wish it was at the beginning of the newscast...I don't like the way they put the weather last...I like to watch all the news together, not mixed up with weather and sports...Something I particularly like is when there's 10 minutes of news without a break."

6.) Fewer Commercials: "[There are] so many interruptions by advertisers. It seems like it's every 5 minutes. Why not go to longer advertising at the quarter hour so it isn't interrupted so often?...The amount of advertising is really overdone, because it's insulting to me to turn on the news and basically, what you get is advertising. I mean, the percentage is really unbalanced. I realize somebody has to pay the bills, but sometimes you'll see four, five, six commercials. There are times you'll have to walk away from the TV...Sometimes they lose me when there's so many advertisements in the middle of one story. Then I'm up doing something and I'm missing the news. Because I just don't stay for advertising."

Other viewer suggestions are listed in descending order by category:

Content/Coverage

More Relevant & In-Depth Coverage: "Give more facts. A lot of stories are superficial...Focus more on basic issues...More on medical research for children...They get these things in here like who cares? The President has a cold or the President got his shots today...[They have] filler stories where the content is questionable and not really worth mentioning...If issues were presented to me that impact my life, and they're issues I could do something about, then I'd be more likely to watch (health care reform, senior citizens, legislation that would affect kids, etc.)...They don't cover things that actually DO affect people, like changes to the tax or the school system. [They cover] the most sensationalized, bizarre circumstances. I guess REAL news is a lot more straightforward and boring than what they DO report, but it does affect people."

Presentation Style

Improve Live Reports: "Every time they have somebody out in the field give the story, the person in the studio asks them a question they've already answered...When something happens and they have a reporter on-the-scene, sometimes they keep going back to this person, and they repeat things, and they're stumbling around, just because the producer thinks it's big news. I don't wanna sit there for a long time watching something [where] they're not really giving me any new information."

No Insensitive Interviews: "When something tragic happens, and they walk up to somebody and say `How does that make you feel?' And every newscast does it. Dumb, dumb, dumb...When they try to interview a grieving family, that looks bad on the news."

Simplify the Production: "News today is too big of a production. We've become saturated with news. They need to get back to simplistic ideas. Just tell us a story simply. Part of it has to do with technology, but news is just too big for its own good."

Don't "Billboard": "[I dislike] where they say `at 6:40 we'll have this, at 6:45, we'll hear this."

Less Tabloid: "Change it back to the old style of reporting. There's too much sensationalism now, making it into a dramatic story...Like yesterday, a newscaster described a small fire as an `inferno'! (ha ha)...I don't think tabloid is a professional way for news to carry on."

Dislike Captioning for the Hearing Impaired: "The closed-captioning is rather distracting. It sometimes covers up almost a quarter of the screen, and you're missin' part of the picture."

Show Locator Maps: "When they're showing an area where something happened, it'd be nice if they showed maps more often, so people could [see] where that place is in the world, or the community."

Less Breaking-In to Programs: "Sometimes I wonder about when they break-in to programs for every little thing, especially [when it's] just a few minutes before the news will be on."

External Factors (outside of the newscasts themselves)

Irritating Promos/Teases: "My main objection is they will headline a story and say `it's gonna be on next,' and it isn't. Or they'll talk about it at the 5 o'clock, and say `tune in for the rest of it at the 6 o'clock.' They'll take one story and break it up from the 5 o'clock to the 6 o'clock report...What I resent is when they come on to say the news is going to cover certain events, and you wait with baited breath for the thing you're interested in, and they don't put it on until almost the end...What I hate is they'll give you a little spit of what's coming up, and they keep repeating that, and after it does come up, it's not a big deal...Instead of tellin' us what they're GONNA tell us, just go ahead and tell us! When they come on in the beginning, a lot of times, they keep saying `coming up, coming up, next, next.' They don't understand the definition of the word `next!' If it's news that's that important, they should tell us right now!"

Personalities

Improve Teamwork: "TV news people should try to be more unique. The repartee and camaraderie that they present is boring, and you see that no matter what part of the country [you're in]. You could be in a small town, or you could be in New York City, you're gonna see the same people, the same faces, the same banter. They act the same way. And it's been 30 years now we've had that, and we don't need it anymore, and it's boring. They need to change their approach...We watched one station where the male anchor was not getting along with his female co-anchor, and it was embarrassing, unsettling, and uncomfortable."

Less Banter: They're constantly talking to each other. Like `okay, to you, Dave,' `to you, Wendy,' etc. They're constantly saying each others' names. [And] this happy talk stuff? I wish they would drop that...Eliminate all the happy talk, the chitchat back and forth between each other, like we're all part of some happy little family."

Appearance: "The women look like Barbie dolls, and the men look like trolls. They're beautifully thin and perfectly made up, but it doesn't really matter what they look like."

Not Serious Enough: "Sometimes [they] try to be comical or try to inject some little thing that's of no interest to someone who wants to know what the real news is...Some go overboard to try to be entertainers, and I don't regard news as entertainment...Stop kidding around in the studio. They tell jokes to each other and get off the subject...For me, personally, sometimes I think they get too cutesy with each other. There's more joking and kidding. For me, the news needs to be more serious and factual. I don't tune in the news to hear jokes. They can have nice personalities, etc., but sometimes I think they can get too carried away doing other things...Some stations try and act too cutesy and crack jokes. I'm like `c'mon, give me the news.' They're there like `look at that tie,' etc.'"

More Down-to-Earth: "Most of the newscasters could be more down-to-earth, more like everyday people...I wish they weren't quite so formal. I wish they were more down-to-earth. Even dress-wise, I wish they wouldn't concentrate on being so `poufy.' Be more real and believable...Why do the newscasters always have to be a stuffed shirt? Why all the fancy shirts and ties? Why not on weekends be John Q. Public? On the weekends, they should relax, too."