"Do most stations do a good job of giving you the
latest updates on ongoing stories without repeating the same information over and over
again, or is this an area where they need to improve?"
This is by far the biggest complaint in the entire survey — more than half the
viewers feel this is one issue on which most stations need to improve. Most of them (31%)
feel strongly about it; among 50-64s and those along the West Coast, the figure is closer
to 40%. It's also an area of significant complaint for women and older viewers (65+), who
are otherwise much less likely than the rest of the audience to have specific complaints
about local news.
 What Viewers Really Have to Say About Repetition
Viewers are extremely vocal in their complaints about repetition. To them, this includes
repeating the exact same story "over and over and over" on a number of
successive newscasts, as well as too much coverage of the same story over a period of
days, weeks, or even months. Viewers describe it as "SO boring...a pain...You get
tired of hearing it...It becomes less interesting...It's redundant...They can beat a story
to death...It creates a monotony...Why do I wanna hear something repeated 55 times?...It's
irritating."
Another primary complaint concerns ongoing coverage which does nothing to advance the
story, so that it becomes old news. "I don't need to hear what happened yesterday,
and the recaps. If I've watched the news, then I know what's goin' on. What I need to know
is what JUST happened...I just turn it off. I figure there's nothing new on there. I can't
imagine that all the people haven't heard the details of the beginning, so get to what's
new in the story." Viewers say that stories repeated too often are a waste of their
time, as well as a waste of air time. "I get the feeling they're just using up
space...There's a lot of current news they're not getting because of rehashing the old
news...I KNOW there's more news out there."
Some complain that entire newscasts can be almost an exact repetition of one aired earlier
in the day. "It's the same at 5:00 and 10:00pm...I watch the news at 5:00, then at
6:00, they come right back with the same thing...From evening to the next morning, it's
still the same news." Other viewers feel that repetition is a form of sensationalism,
or that too much repetition leads to unwarranted speculation. Some even feel that so much
repetition is actually insulting. "They treat us like children...It's like they're
berating our intelligence...We're not so stupid that they have to go back over it."
It seems ironic that in an effort to catch the new tune-in, stations alienate some of
their most frequent news viewers — those who watch 2 or more newscasts per day.
"They need to get off their ass and report on something different...It can certainly
persuade one to look elsewhere on the TV."
Viewers offer the following reasons observations
about repetition:
It's Boring to Hear the Same Things Over & Over — "It gets old...You
don't need to hear it over and over and over. All the news stations do that...If I've seen
it once, I don't need to see it again...Why repeat it 3-4 times a day?..I don't wanna hear
it every 15 minutes...I'd rather hear new news...That's all you hear. You'll hear it for a
week...My husband and I have sat in front of newscasts and gone `My God, how many times do
we have to hear this?' Especially if it's violent, and we're thinking enough is enough.
And you wonder why children are so deranged these days. If they don't know how to do it,
they will after watching it on the news 75 times...That's why I only watch news 1-2 nights
a week. Because I get everything those two nights...It can certainly persuade someone to
look elsewhere on the TV."
Repetition Does Nothing to Provide New Information — "You're like `I know
that. What's new? What changed?...I wanna hear the latest, not the rehash of what I've
heard 43 days in a row...People should have the most current information...If they don't
have any updates, why are they just going back over and over the same information? It's
redundant, and it just gets irritating...If there's something new to report, report it.
Otherwise, leave it alone...How many times do you wanna hear the same old thing? Our lives
are repetitious enough...If you don't have anything new to say, stay off the air...Even
when it's gone stale, they still go over and over it...Move on."
It Wastes Time that Could Be Used Better by Covering Other Stories — "The
news is on for one and a half hours, and you hear it repeat over and over and over.
There's no sense in it. They could spend the time to put other news on there...They could
be saying something else...Get to the point and move on...They cover the same ground day
after day...It wastes a lot of time that they could [use] to put something else on in that
30 minute segment...In the absence of knowledge in a news story, the speculation starts
creeping in there. Every news station I watch does it. None of them is above it. They
start rehashing stuff over and over. Then, basically, you wind up wasting a whole lot of
air time on the same old junk."
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