A $URVEY Q? MiCHEG‘AE‘é TELEWSEQR NEW$ SERECTQEE? AND TE-{EiR WAGE CF MECHEGAN STATE UNIQVEEESWX’? AGQECULYURAL INFORMAHGN Them for flu Daqrmo of M. A. MICBEGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Joseph James Marks E967 JHESIS ‘1’76‘f ‘7 "I ‘ Ls‘fil .w, , -.) ABSTRACT A SURVEY OF MICHIGAN TELEVISION NENS DIRECTORS AND THLIR USAGE OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY'S AGRICULTURAL INFORluATlON by Joseph James Marks The Michigan State University (hSU) Cooperative Extension Service specialists and Agricultural Experiment Station scientists continually have educational information aid H.3ear: h findings which should be cormunicated to interested persons. Some of this informa~ tion is of interest only to farmers, but some has general audience appeal. It was the intent of this study to find out if Michigan's commerc 5.al television news directors could or would use some of the "agricultural" information origin Min from MSU. Also, an attempt was made to learn whether or not PSU could econ omicallv use the cor." televi31on newscast as an outlet for this information. 4;...3 mercia To ma.1:e these determinations, personal interviews were con- ducted with the news directors for sixteen comreec ial television stations (rourm en primary stations and tho satellite ste tions). An attempt Les made to determine the type of criteria used by news directors when seltcting nc.:s or feature items for their news shows. Also, an attempt was made to determine the factors which influence these criteria. All of these f rs were related to the news LI r x t, .- f- C» directors’ potential usage of EQU's 8'11(ultve 1 information. Joseph James Marks Results of the study generally indicated the following: 1. Michigan television newscasts gg_offer an outlet for MSU‘S "agricultural"[information if the information can be presented in such a way that it is of interest to a general audience, rather than just to farmers. 2. The cost of producing "agricultural" film clips for these newscasts does not seem prohibitive, especially when looked upon in terms of cost per viewer reached. 3. Each television news director uses a wide variety of criteria when making judgments about news or features to use on his news shows. u. All the television news directors surveyed preferred film over any other type of visual for use in their newscasts. They also yL'CIULLbd C01u1' film blip.) (UVcl Lluw:\ and white), and 1.116] 3:94.119; the film clips to be thirty seconds to one minute in length. 5. The news directors would be more likely to use "agricul— tural” film clips during noon newscasts when more "features" are generally used, and/or during weekend newscasts when "hard news" tends 'to taper off. A SURVEY OF MICHIGAN TELEVISION NEWS DIRECTORS AND THEIR USAGE OF MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY'S AGRICULTURAL INFORMATION By Joseph James Marks A THESIS . Submitted to Michigan etate University in partial ftlfillment of the reluirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Television and Radio 1967 Accepted by the faculty of the Department of Television and Radio, College of Communication Arts, Michigan State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree. v I ,- 9, /// ’fl " til/(4’1, 9.] 7, AA . 'Director of Thesis ii ACKNOWLE DOT-TC?! T8 The author is indebted to many people for their guidance, support and encouragement in completing this study. To Dr. Thomas F. Baldwin, my thesis adviser, for his assist- ance in the organization of the study and the writing of the thesis. To the fourteen Eichigan television news directors this author surveyed for courteously providing the information sought in this study. To Dr. Mason E. Miller, director of Extension Personnel Development at MSU, for his guidance and advice. To HSU'S Agricultural Experiment Station and its director, Dr. Sylvan H. Wittwer, for showing interest in the study and providing time to complete it. To my wife and three sons for their much needed support, encouragement and patience throughout my Master's program. [—1. Ho Ho TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. II. III. III'I.I{ODUC'1‘IOIJOOOO0.0.0.0...0..0.0.0.0.0;000000000009000 The PPObler£]OIOOOOOOOOIOOOOOOOOOCOO The Purpose of the Study.......... Literature Review.................. Summary of Assumptions............. bmrl‘}‘ODOLOGYOOO000.00.00.00.00.00.... Area C'f Stlldsroooocoo-0.090.000.0000 Development of Instruments........... RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.............. Demographic lnformation........... News Shows: lumber and Length.... Involvement in News Shows......... Staff Size........................ News Show Content: With Whom Does the News Director Confer?.. Who Decides What Goes on the Air?. Do You Ever Listen to Opinions?... Audience.......................... Use of "Handouts“.................. Handouts: What's Wrong with Them?. Staff Coverage..................... Use of HSU Releases.............. Format of Materials............... 000.000.0000 10 12 12 20 2O 21 23 23 2” 25 27 29 30 31 33 33 Chapter Page The Use of Color...................................... 39 News and Feature Criteria............................. 39 Film Clip Ratings by TV Stations...................... ”9 Economics of Producing News Film Clips................ 51 Effects of Background and Experience on Usage......... 5M Use of Agricultural Releases.......................... 58 Agriculture: Of General Interest?.................... 59 IV. SUIWIILAXRY AAIID COIICIJUSIOI‘JSooooooooooooooooooooooocoooocoooo 62 ReCOInInenCIatiOHSoooo000000000000:oooooooooo-ooooooouooo 67 Limitations of the Study.............................. 71 Implications for Further Research..................... 72 REIEmirJCIZSIOIOO0"...0.000.000.0000...OCOOCCOOOOOCOCOOOO 75 APPENDIX A: Questionnaire Used in Survey............... 78 APPENDIX B: Ratings and Detailed Comments on Film ClipSOO00.000.000.00.00.00.00.000 87 Table LIST OF TABLES Michigan television farm programming................... Survey of Michigan television news directors. Number and length of local newscasts......... Rank Of relCaE;e for'izlélt...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOCOCOO Film clip ratings (by title and category).... Film clip ratings by TV stations............. Cost of TV news clips — one minute, color.... Potential homes and cost per thousand reached based on film clip ratings.............. Proposed television budget (Cooperative Extension Service—Agricultural Experiment Station, i'xiCIligaIl Stilt-e blliVCI‘Sj—L)I)OOOOOO00......OOOOOOOOOOOOOO vi Page in 22 37 1+1 50 53' IU CHAPTER I IhTRODUCTION The amount of commercial television time devoted to farm shows is by no means overwhelming in Michigan (see Table 1). An obvious reason is that commercial television stations will not air very many programs for a farm population which constitutes only a small and declining percentage of the total population. Census figures show a drop from 155,519 farms in the state in 1950 to 93,50u in 1864. (30) By 1980, the number is expected to drop to u5,000. (38:18) But farm news —- or, better stated, "agricultural news" —- is still being made. Some of it is of interest only to farmers, but some has general audience appeal. Examples of the latter can be found among the deluge or agri— cultural news and feature releases that are channeled to mass media' outlets by the Michigan State University (MSU) agricultural information staff (in the Department of Information Services). MSU'S Agricultural Experiment Station scientists and its COOperative Extension Service .personnel continually have research findings and educational informa- tion relating to subjects such as ”food," "pesticides," "lawn and garden information," and others which seem to fit into the "general interest" category. The Problem A study of how KSU might disseminate its agricultural informa— tion on television was made for two reasons: (1) This author, as news editor for MSU‘s Agricultural Experiment Station, was concerned about the potential of television as an outlet for his agricultural WXYZ-TV Detroit WWJ~TV Detroit WJRT-TV Flint WJIM-TV Lansing WMSB-TV E.Lansing WZZM~TV Gd.Rapids WOOD—TV Gd.Rapids WKZO—TV Kalamazoo WKNX-TV Saginaw Table 1. Michigan television farm programming. __ Sun. ion. Tues. ”94;, __Thurs. Fri. _#_Sat. Rural Rural Newsreel Report 7 a.m. 6:30 a.m. Country Country Living Living 7:30 a.m. 7 a.m. Circadia Circadia Circadia Circadia Circadia Harvest 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Circadia Circadia Circadia Circadia Circadia 12:15 p.le2:lS p.m. 12:15 p.m.12:15 p.m. 12:15 p.m. Rura 1 Harvest Harvest Route 10 12:30 p.m. 7 p.m. (WILX) - 7:”5 a.m. Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Report Report Report Report Report 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Agricul- Weather Weather Weather Weather Weather ture, USA 7:25 a.m. 7:25 a.m. 7:25 a.m. 7:25 a.m. 7:25 a.m. 7:30 a.m. Farm Farm Farm Farm Farm Show Show Show Show Show 7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m. 7:15 a.m. Rural Report 6zu5 a.m. 1 Source: TV Guide, August 6, 1967. ”a. 0—-.. ---. information; and (2) It was believed the findings would be of interest to agricultural information staffs of other Land Grant universities who are also faced with the task of effectively disseminating agricul— tural information to the people of their states. A glance at the Michigan situation indicated that current television "farm shows" offered some Opportunities for airing MSU's agricultural research and extension information. But these shows were few in number and were generally offered when audience ratings were relatively low. Another possibility was long public service "specials.” But investigation indicated that very little of this time would be made readily available on a regular basis by television stations, and the time and cost expended by MSU's Department of Information Services would be relatively high on a per—viewer-reached basis. (11) Another possibility for airing MSU's agricultural information seemed to be the local television news show. A check of TV program— ming schedules showed these newscasts were aired often and on a .regular basis on every commercial television station in the state. (29) Furthermore, it was reasoned, at least some of MSU‘s agricul— tural news and feature material could be of interest to a large number of people who watch these news asts (for example, the suburban "weekend farmers" who might want to know more about what the University has to say about lawns and gardens, women who might like to know about new food product developments, etc.). - Thus, the problem was to find out whi£h_of several possible MSU agricultural news and feature items might be used by the news directors, and whether or not MS '5 agricultural information staff could economically disseminate these items via the television newscast. The Purpose of the Study Over the years, several studies have been made to determine the best means for writing and broadcasting agricultural information for farmers. In this study, however, an attempt was made to learn more about the potential of communicating agricultural information to the varied kinds of people who watch television newscasts. To do this, a survey was made of Michigan's television news directors to learn how they function as "gatekeepers," particularly in relation to agricultural news. The "gatekeeper," as defined by " the kinds of information that can‘ Lewin, is the person who "governs flow through a communication channel. (15:1u5) More Specifically, the survey sought answers to these questions: 1. How does the gatekeeper's (news director's) background, experience, and knowledge of HSU and/or agriculture influence his usage of MSU's agricultural news and features? 2. Does the quantity of news sh ws and news staffs have any bearing on this usage?’ 3. Who (if anyone) influences the gatekeeper's criteria or judg.ents about the value of n ws or feature items? u. Does release "format" (whether the stories are accompanied by films, slides, video tapes, still pictures or no visuals) have any bearing on usage? 5. Does the fact that a news or feature item is prepared_in polo: (in contrast to black and white) have any bearing on usage? 6. What are the gatekeeper's criteria for judging the value of news and feature material, and how do these criteria affect usage? 7. How does the gatekeeper's concept of his news audience affect usage? 8. Does the television news gatekeeper see any place for HSU's agricultural ne:s and feature material in his newscasts? Literature Review The purpose of this section is to review studies that have ' and their criteria (values) for selecting been made of "gatekeepers' news and feature items. ApprOpriate assumptions are developed and are summarized at the end of this section. As Schramm noted, " ...all alone the (communication) chain are a series of gatekeepers, who have the right to open or close the gate to any message that comes along." (21:176) The news director for a Michigan commercial television station fits into this chain. And so Idoes each member of HSU's agricultural information staff who helps to select the news or feature items to be sent to the television news director. But, as Taylor and MacLean and Kao found out, communication "prophets" aren't always accurate in predicting the effectiveness of a communication. (27:H16; 17:33?) Part of the reason may be due to the wide range of criteria sad to determine the value of a news story. Hulteng, in his survey of Oregon newspapers, said his data suggested that "there are profound differences in news judgment even with on usage? 6. What are the gatekeeper's criteria for judging the value of news and feature material, and how do these criteria affect usage? 7. How does the gatekeeper's concept of his news audience affect usage? 8. Does the television news gatekeeper see any place for MSU's agricultural news and feature material in his newscasts? Literature Review The purpose of this section is to review studies that have ' and their criteria (values) for selecting been made of "gatekeepers' news and feature items. Appropriate assumptions are developed and are summarized at the end of this section. As Schramm noted, "...all along the (communication) chain are a series of gatekeepers, who have the right to open or close the gate to any message that comes along." (21:176) The news director for a Michigan commercial television station fits into this chain. And so Idoes each Member of MSU's agricultural information staff who helps to select the news or feature items to be sent to the television news director. But, as Taylor and MacLean and Kao found out, communication "prophets" aren't always accurate in predicting the effectiveness of a communication. (27:u16; 17:33?) Part of the reason may be due to the wide range of criteria used to determine the value of a news story. Hulteng, in his survey of Oregon newspapers, said his data suggested that "there are profound differences in news judgment even with respect to the central core of the news, the top-flight stories in which it might be assumed most seasoned editors would agree." (13:398) Stempel, who studied the wire stories used by six Michigan dailies, found only 31 per cent agreement between editors on the use of stories. (25:47) In a later study of twenty five newspapers with circulation over 100,000, Stempel found six news factors which editors used in determining the use and placement of stories: suspense-conflict (e.g., Ohio Valley floods, Russian flights over Alaska), the public affairs factor (stories abcut actions of the government), human interest, timeliness, the positive element in the news (e.g., "Rocket Has Perfect Launch") and political controversy. (2”) Brown referred to the criteria for judging news as ”news elements," and he suggested that they were "proximity," "significance," "prominence," ”human interest" and "timeliness." (5:11—12) There have been many other such criteria, judgments, elements and values cited by other communication researchers over the years. Most of these criteria, although called by different .names, could fit into the factors and elements outlined by Stempel and Brown. But, as White noted, news judgments are "highly subjective" and "reliant Upon value-judgments based on the 'gatekeeper's' own set of experiences, attitudes and expectations..." (32:386) Thus, the answers to the questions, "What is news?" and ”What is of interest?" are not easily given. If there is a single answer, it would probably be in terms of the "psychological proximity" dis— cussed by Gieber. (9:9) This, he said, is related to how much (or how little) the recipient of a message can relate to the content of the message. The importance of this "psychological proximity" factor was noted by Lippmann in his quotation from an 1860 letter by Horace Greeley: Begin with the clear conception that the subject of deepes interest to an average human being is himself; next to that he is most concerned with his neighbor....(16:33l) While many gatekeepers are aware of the importance of the "psychological proximity" factor, some of them, particularly those on MSU'S agricultural information staff, are unable to give the "local angle" to all stories because of several problems common to publicists. Sellers, who investigated the "Suitability of State Publicity Materials for Weekly Newspapers," summarized 8 me of these problems quite well: 0 It should be recognized, however, that publicists often find it difficult to localize stories. Almost any subject may be capable of localization, but when budgets and staffs are .L.Lm.LLC , indiVidUdl ticameuL u: chSpdycir‘b‘ may 1J9: bullwhixat impractical. (22:u69) Even if a news or feature item has this "local angle" -— this "psychological proximity" —- and even if it does have some of the news "values" or "elements" mentioned earlier, there is still a chance that nthe item will not be used by the television news director. Unlike the telegraph wire editors surveyed by Gieber, the television news director . is not desk—bound. (10) He has some contact with release sources, audience and his community. In addition, as Breed noted, there are many other forces which can act upon this gatekeeper and influence his judgments: professional codes, journalism schools, professional organizations, critics and the gatekeeper’s colleagues. (3:335) In the survey of Michigan television news directors, an attempt was made to learn more about these "significant others" ~— those persons who influence the news director's news decision—making processes. (l8zuu) It was assumed in this study that one of these "significant "manager" others” was the station manager (sometimes called just the or the "general manager") and that he performed a role in relation to the news director in about the same way as the publisher relates to a news editor in a newspaper. It was also assumed that the manager, as the news director's ”boss," would have at least some effect on the news policy of the station. If these assumptions are correct, the station manager may occupy a position similar to that of the publisher who, according to Breed, "...can be located at the apex of a T, the crucial point of decision making." (3:335) Breed added these comments: News room and professional forces form the base of the T, outside forces from the community and society are the arms. It is for the publisher to decide which forces to propitiate. ...The newsman's source of rewards is located not among the readers, who are manifestly his clients, but among his colleagues and superiors. Instead of adhering to societal and professional ideals, he redefined his values to the more pragmatic level of the news room group. ...Any important change toward a more "free and responsible press" must stem from various possible pressures of the publisher, who epitomizes the policy making coordinating role. (3:335-36) An even closer look at the television news director reveals a man who must be extremely selective in his choice of news show content. For example, he receives a great deal of material from the wire services and, if he is anything like some of the newspaper editors that have been surveyed, he only uses a small portion of it. Cutlip, in his survey of Wisconsin newspapers, found that the average paper used less than oneetenth of all stories provided to it by the AP news wire, and Jones, et al., found that Minnesota newspapers used only from one—fifth to one—half of the state news on the AP wire. (8zu35; luz306) No doubt, the television news director must also he very selective, since the "space" he has to fill is less than that of most newspapers. In this study, it was expected that the television news director would, at best, be only slightly knowledgeable about agri- culture and that this might affect his attitude and, ultimately, his usage of agricultural news and features. Some support of this assump— tion is provided by Backstrom and Hursh who have found that "what knowledge a person has of any subject is related to his attitudes toward it.” (2:71) Carter reiterated this opinion, to some extent, in a report on his North Carolina press»medical study which showed "a positive relationship" between attitudes toward the press (by physicians) and "frequency of contact with newsman." (6:138) Numerous agricultural communication.researchers have tried to learn more about the best way of presenting agricultural informa— tion on television. Most of these studies were concerned with airing agricultural information on "fa:m_shows," but some of the findings appear to have some relationship to the study of usage of agricultural information on television news shows. For example, Arneson, in a 1951 study of radio farm directors, noted that "farm directors feel that the state and county Extension Services ignore the 'timeliness' of news items." (1:93) {C further stated that the farm directors "would like short items of events and U) occurrences happening now, with emphasis on uccess and human interest stories." These factors have been generally agreed upon by communi— cation researchers and television information specialists throughout 10 the north central United States; (33) Higbee, who analyzed radio—TV farm directors' comments about university releases, noted that the farm directors specifically cited a desire for "more short (one to three—minute) programs instead of the longer, more detailed programs” and ‘ ‘a preference for personal reports by the researchers and scientists themselves, rather than by a third person.” (12:9) Timely, short, human interest, easy—to—read, localized stories and personal reports from scientists ~- all can be assumed to be con— sidered ”favorable" for television, but are sometimes neglected by university information staffs. Summary of Assumptions h-“ . - .._,-,, sf. I'. ‘°4,_ ,. ,1 ,. ‘ P . udoed VJ the Survey vi cm... lchPatULu and S€3VCL'(AJ. uuulpleupeo with colleagues in MSU's Department of Information Services, several assumptions were made and then tested in the study. For example, it was assumed that a news director's background, experience and knowledge of MSU and/or agriculture would have a direct 'and positive relationship to his usage of MSU's agricultural news and feature material. . But it was also assumed that a news director would be at least somewhat subjective in his judgments about the value of a news or feature item. It was believed that he would be influenced by "significant others," the writing style of a release, the audience intent (general interest vs. agricultural interest) of the release H. P'“ F. I and the proximity of the release (the "local angle"). More Spec cally, it was believed that the news director would favor "general 11 interest" news or feature items over those which were "agricultural interest," "technical" or "promotional" in nature. It was further assumed that the television news directors would prefer to have news or feature releases in the form of film or video tape (rather than still pictures, slides or no visuals), and that they would prefer color film over black—and—white. Finally, it was assumed that the news directors most likely to use prepared film clips from HSU would be those who had relatively small news staffs and,apparently, small operating budgets. CHAPTER II METHODOLOGY Area of Study There were twentyuone television stations in Michigan in May, 1967. (H) Of this total, sixteen were commercial VHF stations, two were commercial UHF stations, one was an educational VHF station and the other two were educational UHF stations. Only sixteen stations were selected for study in this survey. Of the five that were not studied, three were the educational tele- vision stations. One of these, WHSB—TV, operated on a share time basis with WILX—TV (a commercial station which produced the neWs shows on Channel 10 and which was selected for the survey). The other two educational stations (WTVS, Channel 56, and WUCM-TV, Channel 19) were owned and operated by the Detroit Educational TV Foundation and Delta College, respectively. It was assumed that these last two stations would not be likely outlets for agricultural information from another .educational institution, Michigan State University. The remaining two stations which weie not included in the study were WKBD—TV (Channel 50), Detroit, which broadcasts mostly sports, and CKLW—TV, located in Detroit but licensed to Windsor, Ontario, Canada. (23) To survey the sixteen stations intended for study, only four— teen news directors had to be contacted, since two of the stations were satellites. WTOM—TV, Cheboygan, was a satellite of WPBN~TV, Traverse City, and WWUP, Sault Ste. Marie, was a satellite of WNTV, Cadillac. (9:28, 30) Neither satellite had a news department. Each had reporters who sent their news and feature material to the primary 1? 13 station for broadcasting. Development of Instruments To survey all the selected Michigan television news directors, an eight—page questionnaire was developed (see Appendix A). It was decided that this questionnaire would serve as a guide for a personal, semi-structured, focused interview with each of the fourteen news directors (for the sixteen stations) that were to be surveyed. (19) This method was selected because it was believed that news directors would be unlikely to respond very fully and freely (if at all) to a lengthy mail questionnaire. It was also believed that the focused face-to~face interview would allow the interviewer to discover more precisely some of the reasons why news directors expressed certain Opinions and revealed certain attitudes during the study. As Merton, et al., explained: In the focused interview, the interviewer can play a more active role; he can introduce more explicit verbal cues to the stimulus situation or even rejpresent it.... In either case, this ordinarily activates a concrete report of responses by interviewees. (19:5) Fourteen news directors (see Table 2) were initially contacted by telephone. This author identified himself only as an employee of Michigan State University's Department of Information Services. The news directors were ngt_told that this author had anything to do with the production and dissemination of HSU's agricultural information. None of the directors had met this author before, with the exception of Mr. John North, who was then news director of WWTV, Cadillac. The news directors were told that HSU's Department of Informa- tion Services was interested in expanding its services to Michigan 1“ Table 2. Survey of Michigan television news directors. Station Location News Director DateuSuryeyed_ WJIH-TV Lansing Mike Wright May 10 (Acting Dir.) WWTV Cadillac John North May 11 (Satellite, WWUP, Sault Ste. Marie) WPBN—TV Traverse City Bill Secrist May 11 (Satellite, WTOH-TV, Cheboygan) (Station Mgr.)* WJRT-TV Flint George Jacksa May 12 WZZH—TV Grand Rapids Jack Hogan May 15 WOOD-TV Grand Rapids Dick Cheverton May 15 WNEM—TV Saginaw Tom Eynon May 16 WKNX—TV Saginaw Dick Thompson May 16 WILX-TV Jackson Larry Payne May 18 WKZO-TV Kalamazoo Fred Douglas fay 18 WXYZ—TV Detroit William Fyffe** May 2” WWJ—TV Detroit James Clark May 2H WJBK~TV Detroit Robert McBride May 2” WLUC—TV Marquette Irving Horton June 2 *The Station Manager said he made many of the decisions for the news shows. At that time, the station had no news director. **Some information also provided by Frank Benesh, assignment editor, and Ron Laufer, research department. 15 television stations, but first the information staff wanted some opinions and comments from the news directors around the state. They were also told that part of the information would be used in a master's thesis and that the information would be kept confidential. The news directors were told, however, that the general information they pro- vided would be used to hopefully improve the Department of Information Services' production of film clips and releases for television stations. The interview, the directors were told, would take about an hour. This estimate of time was based on pilot studies conducted with members of MSU's Department of Information Services, May 8, 1967. Appointments were made, and the survey was completed within three weeks (May 10 - June 2, 1967). When interviewed, the news directors were urged to Speak freely, since their comments and criti— cisms were very important to the study being made. Apparently, most of the news directors took this suggestion quite seriously. This is indicated by the detailed and frank comments recorded from the inter— views and by the fact that only three of the fourteen interviews took _less than two hours. During the interviews the questionnaire was used as a guide to seek information in these general areas: 1. Demographic information (page 1 of questionnaire). This information was to be used to develop "profiles" on the Michigan television news "gatekeepers" (news directors) that were surveyed and to determine if any of these factors (such as past job experience, educational background, etc.) had any influence on the TV directors' opinions (and, ultimately, usage) of "l lichigan State Univer- sity's agricultural information. 16 2. Time devoted to news shows and size of staff (page 2 of questionnaire). This information was to be used to determine the potential outlets for news and features on each station and to test the assump— tion that MSU ”handouts" (prepared films, in particular) will more likely be used at those TV stations where news staffs are small. 3f "Significant others" (page 2, questions 5—8). This information was to be used to find out :ho might influ- ence the news directors' "gatekeeping" decisions and who else (besides the news director) might be making these decisions. H. Audience (page 3 of questionnaire). It was hoped that answers to these questions would show the news director's concept of his news show audience and would indicate the numbers and types of people that might be reached if MSU agricul- tural news and feature material was used on his station. '5. Usage and types of "handouts" (under "news show content," page H of questionnaire). It was hoped that by finding out what materials were (or were not) used and why (or why not), MSU's agricultural information staff could produce materials that would be used by these stations. 5. Format (page 5 of questionnaire). The news directors were asked to rate, in order of preference, the form_or release they would use most often. It was assumed that a release accompanied by film or video tape would be preferred over the same story accompanied by still pictures, slides or no visuals because of TV'S characteristic of being able to Show visual movement. 7. News staff's coverage (page 5, question 3). 17 It seemed possible that some news directors would prefer that they or their staffs cover MSU events themselves rather than receiving prepared releases from the University. If this were true, the Depart— ment of Information Services might function better by giving these news directors news tips and feature suggestions, rather than operat« ing as a news and feature production unit. 8. MSU news and features: usage and opinions (page 5, questions u and 5). The reasoning for these questions was twofold: (1) to find out what can be done to improve MSU news and feature information being sent these stations and (2) to find out which stations were already using MSU information. 9. News and feature criteria (pages 6 and 7 of questionnaire). Titles and descriptions for eight hypothetical film clips were written with the intention that the film clips would fit into four different categories as follows: Category Film Clip Titbgg (see descriptions ' in Appendix A) General Interest—Informational "Think Mink" (vs. agricultural interest, "Hibernating Apples" or promotional) Agricultural Interest "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" (vs. general interest) "Cooling the Beet Generation" Promotional "New Food Research Facilities Opened" (vs. general interest— "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!" informational) Technical "Inertial Propulsion Machine Developed” (vs. non-technical in "Science Reshapes Trees" writing style) 18 Writing the combination of titles and descriptions to fit these categories was done by this author and was based on his knowl— edge and eleven years of journalistic experience. General agreement that these hypothetical film clips could fall into the four categories listed above was received from this author's colleagues on the MSU agricultural information staff. Before rating these hypothetical film clips, the news direc— tors were given the following instructions: Look at the titles and descriptions listed below. Each includes a silent, color film accompanied by a script. Each is about one and one~half minutes long. Now assume that each arrives on a normal news day (one per day). Rate each separately according to the categories listed. In total or in part, I would...probably use __) possibly use , not use : [Check one.] After they rated all eight films, the news directors were asked why they rated each film as they did.‘ This question was asked for each individual film clip. It was reasoned that comments by news directors would reveal their main criteria for judging film clips and .that knowing these criteria would be useful to MSU's agricultural information staff when preparing or considering the preparation of . news and features for use on television. 10. Use of agricultural releases (page 8 of questionnaire). After the news directors were asked whether they ever used agricultural releases in their news shows, this author more fully identified himself, by job title and job description, to the news directors. They were told that all eight of the film clips they rated were actua MSU agricultural research projects. They were also given other examples of the general areas included in MSU's 19 agricultural projects. Then the news directors were asked whether these types of agricultural information had any place on their news shows. Admittedly, this last question was not very subtle.. It was intended to inform the news directors of the various types of infor- mation that could come from Michigan State University's agricultural information staff. It was also hoped that increasing the news directors' knowledge of the types of agricultural information avail- able from MSU would result in a more favorable attitude (by the news director) toward HSU and its agricultural information. Whether or not such an attitude change resulted was to be investigated at a later date but was not a part of this study. CHAPTER III RESULTS AND DISCUSSION yemographic Information The average age of the Michigan television news directors surveyed was 39. The range was 27 to 52. Years of experience in broadcasting averaged 16.6; the range, 9 to 3H. They had an average of u jobs in broadcasting. The range was 1 to 9. The news directors had been working at the station at which they were interviewed for an average of 7.u years, but the range was 1 to 28 years. They had been news directors at these stations an. average of ”.7 years. The range was 0 (acting director) to 15. In terms of educational background, all but one attended a college or a university —- and that one (the news director at WILX—TV) had taught broadcast journalism at Wayne State University for five and oneuhalf years. Eight of the news directors had graduated from .a college or university, three of them from MSU. None had advanced degrees, but two had worked on their master's degrees. Six of the news directors were born in Michigan (Detroit, St. Johns, Boyne Falls, Sault Ste. Marie, Flint and Kalamazoo); two were born in Ohio (Cleveland and Loraine); two were born in Illinois (Joliet and Chicago); and one each was born in Great Falls, Montana; Plattsburg, New York; Norfolk, Virginia; and Providence, Rhode Island. The news directors had lived in an average of three states (including hichigan and excluding military service). The range was from one (only Michigan) to six states plus England. Four had lived 2O 21 only in Michigan. Four were sons of unskilled laborers; two, skilled laborers; two, salesmen; two, professional men (an attorney and a certified public accountant); one, farmer; ne, merchant; one, newSpaperman (circulation department); and one, businessmanager. In summary, it should be noted that the data helped to estab- lish the surveyed Michigan television news directors as experienced "gatekeepers" of the news. All of the findings in this section will be discussed later in this chapter under the section entitled, "Effects of Background and Experience on Usage." News Shows: Number and Length The 1% news directors said their 16 stations ailed 33 local news shows per day, an average of ”.2. (See Table 3.) The range was from 2 a day on WJRT—TV and WLUC~TV to 11 on WZZM—TV. In addition, there were 28 news shows aired on weekends. The most pOpular news show length was five minutes. Next 'most popular was fifteen minutes (including commercials) which was usually presented within a half—hour block of news, weather and sports. The news directors reported a total of 580 minutes of news broadcasting daily (including commercials), an average of Ml.” minutes of local daily news per station. This figure may be somewhat distorted by the three stations which included weather and Sports in their news shows. Still, the data indicated that some news time might be avail- able for news and features from sources outside the wire services and the station's news staffs. And, at least a possibility existed that 22 .maco meme 609m mpmnmmmw was oases weepomnwe mzmz .wsonw Ucexmms mo Hmuou exp mafia .xmmz sea msoem mama hawww Ham mo pr09 .munomm one enzymes mmosaoc4e H mNm mN mm mm m ma mHMPOB 111, “we awe-mfi NN N Adv lfiwEloa 1 ANV CHEImH Advimcwfiflbm AHV CAEIm >hlmoox ma a Adv Cwfiflma m ,1 ANV Cwfinoa Adv CwEan >w :Hu: Adv cwEumH AHV CMEIOH mm a Ame ,mmmwMH o 11. 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Adv CwE Imfl N ANV Cwfilmd >71 via; A>PIEOFB mV ea 11w Amp, sealed m 111 Ame casuoa AHV swanm >512mme Amman“... wv NH N ANN cwEImH m AWv CHEImH hflpl CHEImH 4:: Amv cwEImH mm m Ame cH51ma : AHV awe-m Awe swanm >suomes mummomzmz mummomsez pmeesz\npmemq mummomsmz nooEJz\mecma pme852\mpmcmq mmeEdz\ewmemq newpmum ammm Hmpoe pcexmmz mpmmowxez ocoxmmz hawmm mche>m paw 950m cooz1wawmo mcficnoz mawma maxmmz Hayes HepOH coocwepm< zawmo .wpmwomzmc Hmooa mo spmcea paw amnesz .m mdnwb 23 some of the material "from other sources" could come from HSU's agri- cultural information staff. Involvement in News Shows All the news directors said they were involved in all of their stations' newscasts to some extent. Only three were regular on—the- air personalities: Tom Eynon, WNZH-TV; Dick Thompson, WKNX—TV; and Mike Wright (acting director), WJIH—TV. Two others did short segments in local newscasts: Larry Payne, WILX—TV, and John North, WWTV. The extent to which the respondents were "involved" in all their stations' newscasts was generally in terms of responsibility. Here were some typical comments: I get involved in all the rest from the standpoint of the overall operation of the news department. I'm in charge of all of them. I oversee all general production of news and assignments... and channel this direction through the news editor. Most of my emphasis is on the 1:25 and 6:15 shows...but I make assignments for all of the shows. All of them...but mostly in a supervisory capacity. All of them...but writing, not reading. I Staff Size The lb news directors reported a total of 102 full~time equiva— lent people working in news on their 16 stations. The average was 7.3; range, 2.5 to 23. The biggest staffs were 23 at WWJ-TV, 15 at WJBK-TV, 12 at WOOD~TV and 8 each at WXYZ—TV and WKZO—TV. Four stations had five—man news staffs, one had four, three had three, and one(WLUC-TV) had 2.5. 2” News Show Content: With Whom Does the News Dirgetor Confer? When asked if they ever conferred with anyone about the con- tent of their news shows, the news directors' answers ranged from a flat "no" to "very seldom," except in the instance of WHJ~TV. The WNJeTV news director said he conferred ”frequently" with the general manager:- The news director is directly responsible to the general manager. I have to clear with him on all policy decisions... the fairness doctrine, racial unrest, how far to go on a political candidate. 3e do not editorialize, and we do not support any candidate. But we do select subjects for news specials. These are one-half hour to an hour long during prime time. We usually average about one a month. Actually, even though the WNJ-TV news director said "frequently” when asked whether he conferred with anyone else about news show content, the fact that most of his discussions dealt with policy put him in the same category with many other news directors. For example, ten of the news directors answered "very seldom," "rarely," or "only on policy problems or editorials." But these "rare conferences" were with the general manager or station manager in every instance, and the discussions usually had to do with policy. Here are some typical comments: No...only on overall policy matters...but not on individual stories. Very rarely. Sometimes I talk with the general manager. If there's some question [disagreement], he prevails. But usually we compromise. ...I confer with the news staff, of course, about content. Very seldom...only when the story is "touchy" or thexe is some legal problem involved. None otherwise. I am given a very free hand [regarding content]. Occasionally to seldom. We use a well—documented [in writing] station policy on which to base decisions. This documentation [book] is a compilation of ten years of experience at the station and written because of changing personnel. It is for 25 the benefit of the four—man news team and the technical people who have anything to do with news. I confer with technical peOple about visuals, but that's about all. We talk some about station policy, too. No one. I will confer with the station manager and owner about editorials, however. The news directors at WJBK—TV, WZZM-TV and WILX-TV gave a flat "no" when asked whether they conferred with anyone about news show content, indicating that the news director is definitely in charge of his own shows. These were the comments given: No...this is my baby. We have good [station] management from that standpoint. They know their place and stay in it. No, I don't have to. All the news staff has a basic understanding of what is news. This understanding has developed over time under my direction. Who Degides What Goes on the Air? In every instance, except one (WOOD-TV), a large share of the decisions about what goes on the airvwne made by the on—the-air talent. The WOOD—TV news director said newsmen on duty made the 'decision and that the peeple doing the show were "strictly talent and have nothing to do with content." In every case, the news directors said they aided in making decisions about what goes on the air. Sometimes this was only for one or two shows per day. On those stations with large staffs, the news director spent most of his time making assignments and keeping track of personnel and their problems. Trying to pinpoint a single ”gatekeeper" at all of these stations was rather difficult. In the Detroit market, for example, 26 the news director had news editors under them who could decide to include or omit individual stories from a news show. Here were some comments from the Detroit market: The general manager and I have established broad policy guide— lines. Bach newscaster has a broad latitude within these guidelines. The on-the-air person decides what goes on the air during his show but he is aided by all the newsmen on duty in putting together his show. I [the news director] decide what goes on the air at 5 p.m.; at 11, it's the newsmen on duty [two of them]; and at 7:30 and 8 a.m., it's another newsman. The news editor [news director] has the responsibility program by program. But we have assistant news editors, too, who also make decisions. All of the rest of the news directors made assignments and most of the major news (content) decisions. But their newsmen on duty at the time a show was aired often made final decisions on what goes on the air. Here were some typical comments: The news department. The on-the—air announcer decides what to use during a given show. I open all mail...and I delegate all assignments. I do. Not story by story, but I have assigned a majority of those that go on the air. The newsmen. The news department is solely reSponsible for the content of the shows. Production matters are handled by production people. [These newsmen are announcers.] If it's hard news ~- breaking news —- there's no problem. The newsmen do. But, if there's any editorial judgment involved, they better contact me. I tell them to "make sure this goes" if I think something is important. [The newsmen he refers to are the on—the~air people.] Whoever is doing the show. But the newsman who gets the idea for a story or film can usually get the on~the~air person to use it. 27 Do You Ever Listen to Opinions? All the news directors answered "yes" when asked, "Do you ever listen (and take heed of) anyone's opinion of your news shows?” When asked, "From whom?" the answer given in every instance was viewers (expressed as the "man on the street," "the people who write in," "everybody who watches," "anybody," etc.). All indicated that they felt it was important to know about audience reactions and Opinions, but most of them said they would take heed of comments only M I if the comments were responsible," "reasonable" and/or "constructive.' Bach news director was asked specifically about opinions from the station manager. All of them said the station managers seldom gave opinions and that the news director generally was the. "boss" of the news department. Here are some typical comments: The station manager seldom has any comments...and when he does, they are mostly constructive criticism. The managers or others here are the most important [people offering opinions]. But their philosophy is to pick someone who has the sense to run the joint...and then leave them alone. The station manager will comment on grammar now and then. He's an English major. He's critical...but he's proud of what we've got [in the way of news staff and programming]. Two news directors implied that the management can be somewhat troublesome to the news department. The first news director commented: "The management is of prime importance...but they can often be imprac— tical. They want us to do some things in the way of coverage, for example, that really isn't practical with our staff." The other news director was more specific: If the general manager hears two comments on Main Street, this can cause us to go through astronomical gyrations. The general manager doesn't understand what news is. He's sensitive to people he meets personally. He's a very strong personality. 28 What he says goes...goes. In the news department we think our stations are regional [in coverage]. The general manager and his "friends" think it's local. We try to put our news in a broader context. Iocal opinions shouldn't determine policy.... Apparently, peers and professional television people are also strongly considered among the ”significant others" who influence the surveyed news directors' opinions. Six of the respondents, without being asked, mentioned that they listened to opinions from "the management group," "other professional television people," and "other newsmen at the station." A rather interesting sidelight to the investigation of the news directors' "significant others" occurred when the respondents were asked if their wives ever gave any constructive criticisms of the news shows. Only four of the fourteen reSpondents said "yes." One said his wife's criticisms were helpful because she didn't know much about television and was therefore valuable as a "typical viewer.” The other three who said "yes" noted that their wives had had some previous professional experience with television. Typical icomments from the ten news directors who said "no" were: "My wife's main comment is that I'm not home often enough," "My wife doesn't watch," and "I don't pay any attention to what my wife says." In summary of this section, it appears that the news directors surveyed think of themselves as the "boss" of the news department -~ the man who delegates assignments and determines, to a large extent, the content of a news show. however, it appears that he is conscious of "station policy" and the opinions of the station manager. Some of the news directors also seemed to be concerned about the opinions of other members of the news staff. All of these "significant others" 29 could have some bearing on a news director's decision to use (or not to use) an agricultural news or feature item from MSU. It's also important to note that the news directors said they listened to audi- ence opinions of their news shows. Their concept of this audience will be discussed in the next section. The relationship of this audience concept to usage will be noted under the "News and Feature Criteria" section. Audience In general, the television news directors' concept of audience numbers was no better than a guess, and their concept of audience composition was rather vague. Only one news director out of fourteen said he knew almost exactly how many people watched nlS news shows. This was the news director of WdBK—TV who produced written proof to document his claims. The news directors at three other stations wouldn't even guess how many people watched their shows. One of these sent this author to the research department to get the information, another said he 'didn't know but guessed it had increased in the past year and a third said, "We cover better than thirty counties, so at least have a poten- tial audience of two and one—half million people, but I won't make any further guesses as to audience." All the other news directors thought they had a fairly good idea of audience numbers, but admitted that they could only give estimates (rounded off to the five's or ten's of thousands). In terms of audience composition, the news directors within the same general market areas seemed to agree on audience composition, 30 but their description of the audience was generally so vague it was really difficult to tell. Typical descriptions were: "a hodgepodge," "a balanced audience," "the full gamut —— agricultural, rural and urban." It's just possible -- in fact, likely -- that audiences for these TV shows are a mixture of several social and economic classes of people. There was one exception to the general agreement on audience composition, but it didn't become readily apparent until two news directors for the same market rated the hypothetical film clips (see "News and Feature Criteria” section). For example, commenting about a film clip about apples, one of the news directors said, "This isn't apple country and wouldn't be of interest." The other news director said, however, "This is big apple growing country." Commenting on another film clip about a cow fertility enzyme, the first news direc- tor said, "The dairy industry is pretty big around here." But the news director at the other station said just the opposite: "Dairy farming is not too big up here." The effect of audience concept and usage became more readily apparent for all news directors when they were asked to compare film clips (”News and Feature Criteria” section), but then this relation- ship was often expressed as ”the local angle." gse_of "Handouts" In general, Michigan television news directors get a wide variety of material from varied sources and use very little of it. All mentioned that they had received materials from politi- cians, public relations men in industry, and colleges and universities. 31 All of the Detroit, Flint and Saginaw news directors indicated they received materials specifically from the auto industry. And all news directors indicated that they used very little "handout" material —— that which comes from sources other than the wire and their own staff's coverage. (The term "handout" is that of the news directors and was not used by this author in this survey.) One news director said he used three or four of these "handouts” a day. This was the largest amount indicated. Six news directors said they used an average of less than one a day; one said he used an average of one feature story and one or two human interest stories a day; and the rest said they used one or two "handouts” a day. nandOULs: What's Wrong with lnem? Most of the handouts received by the Michigan television news directors surveyed were in the form of printed releases. And, from the news directors' point of view, these releases were too long and too newspaper oriented. In general, they said, the visuals were too 'few and too poor: “Not for television...,” "Not enough film...." All said they got some film (from congressmen and some public relations men in industry), but they preferred to get more: If it's well prepared, it's film. We'd rather have film. Television means movement. I hate to use anything without a picture. This is one of the determining factors in a news feature's use. We prefer color film. [Of the handout materials we receive], we will look at films, particularly. Politicians send a lot of film clips. I went to Washington and asked them to. But most of them are in black and white. Even 32 so, these are a lot more interesting than a written release on a new cyclotron at the University of California. ...We can always use visuals on the weekend. We need film. We don't get enough of it. Send me more. Hell, we can't use a 51:0 Sendin" US DUNS 8.1391? releases. p b I Give are generally all OoKo "— one-column cut. The films we rec both black and white and color. These comments about film, color and visuals on weekends were considered in writing the "Recommendations" section in.the last chap- ter of this thesis. The news directors generally agreed that the material they received from other sources varied a great deal in quality and that they could or would not use most of it. The general complaints were that (l) the handout material was not particularly localized; (2) it often arrived too late to be news; (3) some is too commercial; (n) most of it is too long and not written for television; and (5) most of it lacks good visuals. To improve these materials, the news directors suggested that senders try to make the material "more television oriented." In several cases, they suggested employing radio—television people to prepare this material. Nearly all emphasized the importance of visuals, condensation of length, tfmeliness and some attempt to get a "local angle." Some admitted, however, that public relations people would have a difficult job trying to serve all media effectively and that visuals can be expensive. Do news directors throw away any "handout” materials without looking at them? Nine said "no," one said "from one outfit I do” and three said ”yes.” Here are comments from the latter: Certain outfits we see often enough to know they won't have anything of interest to us. But if it's a film, we'll at least look at the script. 33 Yes. A lot. I don't have time to look at all of them. Some sources we know won't send us anything worthwhile... and we don't want fill stories. Yes. I know what many of them have to offer. It's nonloeal. -I'll look at something from Lansing and Detroit, but if it's good, it's probably on the wire already. And the wire does a better job of condensing it. ' §taff Coverage All but three of the news directors said they would prefer to cover a news or feature event with their own staff rather than having someone send them the material. Of the three exceptions, one (WPBN—TV) said: ”No. We only have three men and usually only one to go out. Our budget is very limited." The news director at WWTV said, "We're limited by man power. There's only one man -— me -- available to go out and get these stories. We have the equipment, though ~— sound, sound~on cameras and Auricon." The news director at WKZO-TV said, "We prefer to cover the event ourselves if it's a news event...but we don't if it's a feature. Features have to be timely. We do cover some features...but we can't always guarantee that we will because .hard news has precedence." The rest of the news directors indicated they had ample staffs and budget for travel. But all said they would not cover an event unless they considered the story worth the time and expense. Ese of HSU Releases All fourteen news directors said they had used releases, film features, etc., about Michigan State University. five said most of the stories they used came in on the wire. Nine said they got them directly from ESU. The news director at one station —— WJBKHTV -- said he got no material directly from MS . 31% The news directors were then asked, "If you get anything directly from MSU, please comment about its quality and content." Typical criticisms were:' "Mostly releases [not enough visuaISJ,” "written for newSpapers," "too long,“ "it isn't that good," "it might give us a lead, but we have to rework everything." MSU releases apparently had not made a strong impression on most of the news directors. Four said they couldn't remember receiving any releases directly from MSU (even though they had), three said the releases had "too much agriculture” in them, and three more said the releases were too long and there were too many of them. The few good comments about MSU's material came from the two stations closest to the University, WILX—TV and WJIM—TV, and the two that cover the northern lower peninsula and part of the Upper Peninsula, WWTV and WPBN—TV (each of which has a satellite station). Comments from these stations are worth noting in some detail, since all four of these respondents had been receiving some of MSU's agricultural information (releases, stills and slides -- not film) in addition to .some general news from HSU (mostly written releases and a little film). The news director at WILX~TV said, "By and large, it's pretty good...except it is newSpaper oriented as far as length is concerned. Most of the visuals have been agriculturally oriented. I look at it this way, it could be of interest, agricultural or not." At WJIH—TV, the comment was similar. "It's generally good. We get more than we can use. Most of it is on agriculture." John North, the WWTV news director at the time of the survey, knew this author, and this may have had some effect on his comments: "Content is our main consideration. We'll rework a good story even if it isn't written for TV or our audience. We expect to have to do this. Films we've received from you have all been O.K. We shortened a few, but the quality is fine." WPBN—TV'S respondent made this comment: "We used to get scripts, slides and matte photos. They were very good, but we found them hard to use because our newscasts were too short to report much on agriculture. Most of these were strictly agriculture, not for news. We need film and we would use almost any we could get." Apparently, WPBN—TV did not have a large budget. The station manager said he would pay $125 a week for a news director with five years of experience. He didn't have a news director at the time the survey was made. Every news director indicated at sometime during the interview that a story accompanied by a film had a much better chance of being aired than one that did not. When this author visited with these men after the interview was completed, they said the competition from hard news and other public relations people was becoming very great and that MoU would have to produce some good, concise film clips to get very much use. About half of the news directors volunteered the suggestion that they should be contacted in advance to see if MSU should bother to make a film at all. They also said that in most cases they would rather cover an important news event themselves and wished that HSU would give them more advance notice of when important events were to occur. However, they said, they would not cover an event unless it constituted a "big" story. Format of_haterials The news directors, when asked to rank the form of releases they would use most often, rated the formats thusly: 36 l. Sound—on-film 2. Silent film with script 3. Video tape (sound—on) u. Slides, script 5. Stills, script 6. Script, no visuals . While the summation of the rankings (Table u) indicated sound~ on—film as being the most preferred, comments by the news directors indicated that silent film, generally, is most preferred -- unless the sound and/or the personality on the film is important. This comment was made by every news director which ranked silent film other than No. l -- with one exception. The exception was at WKZO~TV where the news director said, ”We like to use good sound...even if it's narrated by someone outside of our own staff." He rated sound—on video tape first; sound—on—film, second; and sound film, script, third. Two other news directors, at WXYZ-TV and.WOOD-TV, also rated .script, silent film, third. They rated sound—on~film first and sound-on video tape second. Both said that sound—on—film or video tape was preferred only when the personality is important to the story or when sound background can help. There were five stations which ranked silent film second. But they agreed they would rather have silent film if the sound or the personality's voice was not important. The reasons for preferring silent film: easier to edit, and newsmen can put on their own narration. The most varied ratings in terms of format preference were 37 Table M. Rank of release format. Script, Script, Script, No Still Script, Silent Sound-on— Sound—on Statign‘ Visuals Pictures Slides _Ei1m __£E}n1 Video Tapg WPBN—TV s u 3 2 ' 1 6 WJRT-TV 6 W 5 2 l 3 WKZO—TV 6 5 W 3 2 1 WWTV 5 3 u l 2 6 WNEM-TV 6 5 W 2‘ l 3 WKNX—TV 6 5 u 1 2 3 WILX-TV 6 H 3 l 2 5 WOOD—TV . 6 5 u 3 1 2 WJIM—TV 5 W 6 l 3 2 ‘ WLUC—TVl 5 3 u 2 1 1 WJBK—TV2 - - - - - - WXYZ~TV3 - ‘ - - 3' 1 2 wa-Tv” — u 3 2 1 _ WZZM—Tv ..6. .2 .1: .1 ..2. .2. Totals: 62 H9 #8 2H 20 39 Av. Ranking: 5.6 ”.1 “.0 1.8 1.5 3.2 *News directors were asked to rank the form of release (the type of visual) in order of their preference. The most preferred was given a rating of "1" from the news director, the second most preferred was given a "2," etc. These were ratings of news or feature material received from sources outside of the wire services and their own staffs. lRanked sound—on video tape and sound-on—film dead even. 2 o o 0 Would not rank. Said "it all depends” ... "form follows funct1on." 3 O o o o o o Said "we'd never use these” to scr1pt with no Visuals, still p1ctures or slides. 1* O . Would use "script, no Vlsuals" for "leads only" and was concerned about the "technical problem ... quality” of sound~on video tape. 38 received by sound-on video tape. It was ranked first two times; second, three times; third, three times; fifth, twice; and sixth (last), three times. Those who rated it first were the news directors at Wwv an eeumasoamo: .H cEsHoo cw meson mo Leeann may me An manmh eemv mmflao EHHM may mcwosvonm mo pmou mew mcwvfl>wv an permasoawom .wmwau EHHM ecu :em: manwmmoo wasozz heap vwmm mQOpoeth mam: exp gowns mewssw mzozm mama may now Ave>w>95m meowpmvm esp he vewwrosmv mmocewvsm wepwawpmm esp pogpemou wchom an empmasoamum .mmwao Edam may :emr >Hnmeosm vasozz zany wwmm wpouoesww nae: any gowns wcwmsv msonm mama esp pom Ave%m>ssm meowvmpm may sh vmvflrosmv meocewosm vevmawpmm esp pm£p0m0p mcwvww he wepmazoamoa .mmcapmn swag Ease woe m wanes wwme mm. m mo.am sma . dam ".>< so.mm ma.mm smo.a mam.“ "Hmpoe ma.a o:.m Hm om =...mesucm sewaapnme zoo: 5H.H mm.fi on was =...pmmm may manaooo: mm. mm.a mam sea zmmmne mmamzmwm mocmwom: am. ma.a mm ama :mmaaa< mcwpmcnmnnxz mm. mm. mam ham . :xcws agape: mm. as. oma we: =...gonmmmmm woos 3mm: mm. m:. Had mom =...cowmasaonm HmwppmeH: am. m an. m om :mw =...mawase genomes mousse: AmoEon mo mpammsonuv Amuse: Mo nonemsonuv :emgomom memnomwm ~=mma sanawmom eases: H=oma sanmgoum eases: waves swam :hanwmmom: mocewmn¢ :AHaMAOhm: eocmwvs< wnflumm meowumpm mo wcwumm meowpmum mo veumefiuwm mo mmEom vequwpmm mo moeom eunewvd< wemevam mocewvz< wepwEHumm vqwmsone.nmm pmoo vammsonh hem umou .mmcwpms made Edam co comma venomen vammsonu hem umoo paw meson Hmwpcepom .m wanes 0‘ ... 514 stations (WJBK-TV and WLUC-TV) gave this rating to "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!" and only one (WJBK—TV) gave the "would probably use" rating to the "New Food Research Facilities Opened" film clip. It is also interesting to note that three of the four highest rated films (lowest cost per thousand homes) were those with subject matter of relatively high interest to women (tulips, food and mink). As noted earlier, many of the news directors estimated (without being asked) that from “0 to 75 per cent of their news show audiences were women 0 Effects of Background and Bxperience_on Usage The assumption that a news director's background, job experi- ence and education would have some bearing on bib usage Uf HSU’s agricultural news and feature film clips could not be substantiated. It had been assumed that the news director with a farm background or one who had graduated from Michigan State University would be more likely to give high ratings to the film clips the directors evaluated 'in the survey. The rating scores show news directors at five stations whose overall film clip rating scores were above the median of 8. These were the news directors at WPBN~TV (satellite, WTOM-TV), WJRT—TV, WKZO—TV, 'IWTV (satellite, WWUP) and WHEN—TV. None of the news directors from these five stations were sons of farmers or had ever lived on a farm. Yet, the news directors at WPBN-TV and WHEN-TV said they would "probably use" both of the agricultural interest films ("Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" and "Cooling the Beet Generation“); the director at WJRT—TV said he would 55 "probably use" one of the films (the one on beets); the director at WKZO-TV said he would "possibly use" both films; and the director at WHTV said he would "possibly use" the one on the "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered." It should be noted, however, that sugar beets are grown extensively within the coverage areas of WJRT—TV and WNEM-TV. Had this subject matter not been chosen as one of the "agricultural interest" film clips to be rated, the total rating scores given by these two news directors might have been lower. All five of the news directors who generally gave high ratings to the hypothetical MSU film clips had attended college. Two of them (the news directors at WJRT—TV and WWTV) were graduates of MSU. It should be noted, however, that all but one of the fourteen news directors surveyed had attended a college or university, and that man (the news director at WILX-TV) had taught at Wayne State University for five and one—half years. It should further be noted that the news director giving the lowest overall rating score to -MSU'S hypothetical film clips (the news director at WZZM—TV) was also a graduate of MSU. Since no direct correlation between news directors' back- grounds and their usage of NSU film clips could be made, why did some news directors rate these film clips high while others generally rated them low? A closer look at the news directors of the stations giving the highest rating scores may offer some clues. For example, the respondent at WPBFrTV was aware that his station and its satellite (WTOM-TV) covered a large rural area. He further noted that his news staff was small (a total of three men), 56 and the news film produced by the staff was limited. So, he said, "We want film!" The news director at WJRT-TV probably gave his relatively good ratings to the film clips because "M80 is in our coverage area... we have a lot of students and alumni in our audience." The news director at WKZO—TV saw at least a possibility for using all eight of the film clips. He had gone to college (although not to MSU), and his father-in-law owned and operated a farm. He said he might give the two agricultural interest films to the farm director, but he saw possibilities for the news show if he could make some tie-in (1) between the "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" film clip and fertility in general, and (2) between the "Cooling the Beet Generation” film clip and sugar prices. The news director at WHTV (satellite, JWUP) was an M80 graduate. He had had no farm background, but he had experience working at radio and television stations located where farming is important to the area (Woodward, 0kla.; Roswell, N.M.; Rapid City, _S.D.; and his present location, Cadillac, Mich.). When asked whether he ever used agricultural stories in his newscasts, he commented: "Yes...especially those with a fruit or natural resources angle. Agriculture (rural farm area) constitutes 25-35 per cent of our coverage area." He said he would not use the ”Cooling the Beet Generation” film clip, but he would possibly use the "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" film clip. He also said he would probably use the film clips on mink, apples, food and trees. The relatively high rating that WHEN—TV gave the film clips is due, at least in part, to the fact that this news director rated 57 both "agricultural interest" films in the "would probably use" category. The news director said he would probably use the "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" film clip because "the dairy industry is pretty big around here." He said he would probably use the "Cooling the Beet Generation” film clip because "this is beet country...we [the station and staff] sit right in the middle of a beet field." Had the two film clips in the "agricultural interest" category been of different subject matter, the WHEN-TV ratings might not have been so high. The rest of the rating score from WHEN-TV came from four film clips that the news directors saw as being feature possibilities: "Think Mink," "New Food Research Facilities Opened," "Science Reshapes Trees," and "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!” Most of the other news directors surveyed shared the view of this news director who saw the possibility for these features on "slow" news days when "hard news" did not dominate the entire newscast. What accounts for the generally low ratings of some news _directors? The news director at WZZH—TV said he would use none of the films because, as noted earlier, he did not consider them as "news." ' The next three low rating stations were all in Detroit: WWJ—TV (rating score: H), WXYZ—TV (rating score: 5) and HJBK-TV (rating score: 6). Their relatively large news staffs and the large amount of “hard news" from the metropolitan Detroit area seemed to be the major reasons for their relatively low ratings of the MSU film clips. The other station giving a low overall rating, WLUC—TV 58 (rating score: 6) is the farthest in geographic distance from Michigan State University. The news director at this Marquette station said, for example, "If these film clips came from Michigan Tech [Michigan Technological University] or Northern [Michigan University], we would be more likely to use them." He rated only three films in the "probably use” category, and all of them had some subject matter tie-in to his Upper Peninsula coverage area. For example, he said he would probably have used the "Inertial Fropulsion Machine Developed" film clip "particularly because it has to do with icy roads...this has interest in the U.P.” He said he would probably use "Science Reshapes Trees" because "forestry is a big industry up here." And he said he would probably use "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!" because it would make "a good feature...particularly since it talks about snow." Use_of Agricultural Releases When asked, ”Do you use agricultural stories in your newscasts?" all but two of the news directors said they did, but only when the .agricultural story was of major importance (the long drought, a major crop loss, an agricultural notable visiting in the area, etc.) or when the agricultural story had an effect on consumers (milk price increase, fresh fruit shortage, etc.). The directors also generally agreed that agricultural stories were often "played down" in their newscasts and seldom rated as a top story. The two news directors that said they did use agricultural stories and quite often gave them "top billing" in their newscasts were directors of WWTV, Cadillac, and WLUC—TV, Marquette. The WWTV news director said he used a lot of agricultural stories related to 59 the fruit industry and the natural resources in the area. And the director of WLUC—TV said he used a lot of local agricultural stories such as "farm tours," "stuff from the COOperative Extension Service," "features on maple syrup," etc. Agriculture: Of General_lnterest? At this point in the survey, and after the news directors had had an Opportunity to evaluate films and to comment as to whether agriculture had any place in their newscasts, the news directors were told more about who was interviewing them: I should tell you that I am the news director for Michigan State University's Agricultural Experiment Station and send out stories and films on agricultural research. All of the stories and films you just rated are about some of our agricultural research projects which include studies of pests and pesticides, development of new food products, and research on fish, wildlife, trees, packaging, harvesters, lawns, plants, economics, etc. After the news directors were given this information, they were asked this question: Do you think this kind of agriculture news and features has any place on your news show...or, put another way, do you think it has enough general interest to be used? The answer to this question could generally be summed up as follows: "Yes —- as long as the information is directed to the general public and not Specifically to commercial farmers.” The only exception to this answer was given by the news director at WZZM-TV who said this type of information had no place in his news show and that the film clips "might make good commercials" if MSU could get someone to Sponsor the products. He insisted that the only agricul- tural news of interest to him was "hard news" such as ”Freeman's visit to Grand Rapids," "the NFO milk dumping episode," or "when the 6O weather has damaged crOps." The other thirteen news directors agreed that there was a place for agriculture on news shows, but the information had to be of wider appeal than to the very small percentage of commercial farmers that might be in their audience. Here were some typical comments by news directors when asked if they thought agriculture news and features had enough general interest to be used on their news shows: (WWJ-TV) “Yes. Take pesticides [for example]. There's a greater awakening on the part of peOple using pesticides since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. There's a lot of interest in pesticides outside of agriculture —- for people, dogs, fish and wildlife. ...We'll use agricultural stories if they can be related to food prices." (WJIM—TV) "It depends on the story. .If you handle it right, you can sell anything to anybody. For example, tobacco as a crop isn't very interesting, but if you relate it to cigarettes, then just about everybody is interested.” (WILX—TV) "For the average run of a story, I don't think it does. But research related to increasing food production, for example, is of interest to everybody. With all of the land being taken out of agricultural production, we have to increase production per acre or we'll all be in trouble." (WOOD-TV) "A new Spray for mosquitoes may be of general interest, but we may use the story and not the film. We have twelve minutes at 11 p.m. to cover the world and, more specifically, the United States, Michigan, Kent County, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. 61 Your chances of getting anything on the air, then, are slim. But there is a chance ~— if you can make it of general interest." (WJBK—TV) "Pests and pesticides for the farmer —— no. For roses —- yes. Everyone is interested in how some pesticides applied to a rose might kill everything else in the garden. 'An agricultural story can be made interesting if it's made generally applicable." (WJRT—TV) "Yes, if it's well done...if it appeals to the general public. These clips offer good feature possibilities. ...Consider the audience when you're making these. We don't want someone cutting holes in a cow's stomach while we're eating. Think in terms of the guy sitting with a can of beer watching the news, or the housewife with the kids hanging around her neck.” CHAPTER IV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The study was designed to determine the potential usage of Michigan State University's agricultural information by Michigan's commercial television news directors on their newscasts. An attempt was also made to learn which factors might influence news directors' judgments when they are deciding whether they should or should not use MSU'S agricultural news and features. Fourteen news directors were personally interviewed to get this information. The results of the survey indicated that the television news director uses a wide range of criteria in making decisions about the news or feature stories he will use on his news shows. And, just as White (32) found in his "gatekeeper" research, the news director "gatekeeper" is somewhat subjective in making his decisions. One of the major reasons for the news directors deciding for or against a news or feature item was related to what they generally called "the local angle" or, as Gieber (9) would have called it, "psychological proximity." The news directors felt that in order to justify the use of a story, the story had to relate, in some way, to the news audience. It was also noted that the news directors were influenced by "significant others," described by Merton (18) as those persons the gatekeeper takes into account when making his news decisions. Appar— ently, the news directors were also influenced by some of the ”forces" referred to by Breed (3) as "professional codes, critics and the gatekeeper's colleagues." However, the full effect of these "significant 62 63 others" and other "forces" on the news director was not established in this study. In general, the survey also indicated that Michigan's tele— vision news directors preferred film over any other form of visual and that they preferred film clips to be thirty seconds to one minute in length. The survey further indicated that more "agricultural" film clips were likely to be used during noon newscasts when "features” were generally used and/or during weekend newscasts when "hard news" tended to taper off. More specifically, the survey showed that the average news director was 39 years old, had been an employee at the station at which he was interviewed for an average of 7.” years, and had been news director at that station for an average of H.7 years. He was involved, to some extent, in all the news shows at his station -- an average of Q.2 (about #0 minutes of air time)a day. He had an average of six other peeple working with him in preparing news shows. All of the news directors said they seldom conferred with any~ one else about the content of the show, but they were at least aware of "station policy," particularly that established by the station manager. Most noted, however, that they shared some of the decisions about what goes on the air with other members of their news staff, particularly the on-the—air talent. All said they listened to (and took heed of) opinions of their news shows, particularly the Opinions of viewers. Some mentioned that Opinions offered by their colleagues and the station manager were also of prime importance to them. 6” Only one news director out of the fourteen said he knew almost exactly how many people watched his news shows. The rest could only guess or call upon someone else at the station to provide information on audience numbers. All, however, said they had a good idea of their newscasts' audience composition, but their descriptions of this audience were rather vague (”a hodgepodge," "a balanced audience," "the full gamut -- agricultural, rural and urban”). The television news directors surveyed said they received a wide variety of material from varied sources and used very little of it. The material received from sources other than wire services or their own news staffs, called "handouts" by the news directors, was generally not used because it lacked good visuals for television (particularly film). When asked to rate the form of releases they would use most often, the news directors rated the forms in this order of preference: sound-on—film, silent film with script, sound—on video tape, script accompanied by slides, script with still pictures and script with no visuals. All of the news directors, except the one at WKNX-TV, said they would prefer color film over black and white, all other things being equal. (WKNX-TV could not air color film at the time of the survey.) All but three of the news directors said they would prefer to cover a news or feature event themselves rather than having someone send them the material. But all admitted that the story would have to be good enough to merit the expenditure of time, personnel and travel expenses involved. 65 All of the news directors said they had used releases about Michigan State University. five said the stories came in on the wire, and nine said they received them directly from the University. Host of the news directors were critical about what they had received directly from MSU: "Mostly releases [not enough visuals]..., "Written for newspapers...," "Too long...," "It might give us a lead, but we have to rework everything." In their rating of eight hypothetical film clips, the news directors seemed quite subjective in making their judgments. Reasons £23_using the film clips were given as follows: "It's news...," "It's of interest to women..." "It's colorful..., "It has a little movement in it...," and "It relates to people in this area." Some of the' reasons most commonly given for npt using_film clips were: "No local angle...," "It's not news...," "Too technical...," ”Inactive...," and "It's strictly for farmers, and we don't have many of those in our audience." 0f the film clips that were rated, those receiving the highest .overall rating were in the "promotional” category; second were those in the "technical" category; third were the "general interest" film clips and fourth were those of "agricultural interest." The relatively high ratings for the H”promotional” and "technical" film clips appar~ ently had little to do with the fact that these film clips were either "promotional" or "technical." According to the news directors, these film clips seemed like they would have the greatest appeal to the largest number of people in their newscasts' audiences. But the "agricultural interest" film clips did receive their low rating because they were of "agricultural interest." It was quite 66 evident that the Michigan television news directors didnnot want to air news or features that would be of interest to only a very small portion of their news audience. A summary of the ratings of the eight hypothetical film clips by Michigan television news directors showed that an average of three film clips would "probably” be used by all of the stations and another 1.7 would "possibly” be used. Using audience estimates provided by the news directors, it was estimated that the lowest rated hypothetical film clip, "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered," would "probably" be received in approxi- mately 91,000 homes. Thus, the cost per thousand homes "probably" reached would be $2.HO. The cost of reaching both the ”probable" and the "possible" audiences would be $1.19 per thousand homes. The highest rated film clip, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!" would "probably" be received in 63u,000 homes and would "possibly” be received in another 60,000. The cost per thousand homes "probably" reached would be $.3H, and the cost per thousand homes both “probably" and ”possibly” reached would be $.31. Based on these costs, and based on the opinion of most of the fourteen news directors that some agricultural news and features can be of enough "general interest" to be used on their newscasts, the following conclusions can be drawn: (a) Television newscasts do_ offer an outlet for "agricultural" information if the information can be presented in such a way that it is of interest to a general audience, rather than just to farmers; and (b) The cost of producing "agricultural" film clips is not prohibitive, especially when looked upon in terms of numbers of viewers reached. 67 Recommendations Based on the results of this study, the following recommenda— tions can be made to Michigan State University personnel involved with disseminating MSU's agricultural information to Michigan tele- vision news directors for use on their newscasts: 1. Establish and maintain good working relationships with Michigan's television news directors. These men are quite often individualists who can make very subjective judgments about what they will use on their newscasts. It is important, then, to be aware of each news director's likes and dislikes and his criteria for judging news and features. Since there is some expense involved in producing film clips for television newscasts, news directors should preferably be asked whether or not they might use the film clip be£3g3_it is made. Furthermore, news directors should be told i2_advance about important MSU news and feature possibilities, since they may want to cover the story themselves. 2. Prepare material for television. Television news direc— tors surveyed said that too much of the MSU material they had received was written for newspapers. A man with television experience should prepare materials specifically for this medium. 3. Make film clips and make them in color. The television news directors said they preferred film over any other form of visual and that they would be more likely to use a story accompanied by a film clip rather than one with no visuals, still pictures or slides. Video tapes can also be sent, but some of the stations do not have adequate equipment for using video tapes and some of the news directors 68 appear concerned about inconsistent quality. Color film is recommended because all but one of the fourteen news directors surveyed said their stations would prefer color over black and white, all other things being equal. Furthermore, the news directors said the number of color television sets in their coverage areas was steadily increasing. u. Film clips should be thirty seconds to one minute in length. This was the length preferred by the television news direc- tors surveyed. Anyway, since the actual time available to the news— casters for presenting local news is only about ten minutes per show, it would seem unlikely that a news director would want to use a film that would take up more than one—tenth of his newscast. ' Findings 5. Do not label the film clip "agriculture.' indicated that news directors will use agricultural stories if the stories are not aimed directly at farmers. 'In other words, they would use "agricultural" stories when they were of "general interest." For this reason, it seems advisable that film clips sent from Michigan .State University shggld_ppt_be mailed under the Cooperative Extension Service or Agricultural Experiment Station label. 6. Send out more stories of interest to women, the suburban "weekend farmer," and the person who might be classified as an "outdoor type." MSU's Agricultural EXperiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service have a lot of information on food, lawns and natural resources which should be appealing to larger segments of news audi- ences than those in the "commercial farmer" category. 7. Prepare film clips for use on noon or weekend newscasts. we of L) Noon newscasts, according to the survey, had a high percenta 69 women watching them. Furthermore, there seemed to be a tendency to use at least some "features” during noontime, rather than concentrating‘ only on "hard news." The survey also showed that "hard news" tended. to taper off during the weekends, and that more film features could be used on Saturdays and Sundays. 8. Some adjustments should be made in the MSU Cooperative Extension Service-Agricultural Experiment Station television budget to allow for the preparation of film clips for television newscasts. The budget at the time of this study (1967-68 fiscal year) and pro- posed changes for 1968-69 are outlined in Table 9. Based on this study, a recommendation was made to MSU'S Department of Information Services to allow $5,200 annually for the preparation of film clips for news shows. Using the cost figures in Table 7, this would provide enough funds for the production of about two film clips per month, on the average. This is not to say that two film clips should be made and sent out every month. Instead, film clips should be prepared ggly_when it appears that there is a 'story worth filming that will likely be used by television news .directors. In fact, an effort should be made to avoid ”flooding the market" with film clips. ' Note also that the proposed budget calls for a cut in the budget for "specials" by $1,200. The cut was made because previous investigations showed that times available for airing these "specials" was not readily available. (11) Furthermore, audience ratings during these public service times were low and production cost~per-viewer~ reached would be relatively high. 70 'Table 9. Proposed television budget (Cooperative Extension Service-Agricultural Experiment Station, flichigan State University). 1967~68 1968-69 Account Budget“L Begg§§t_ General Operating $ 2,u00 $ 2,HOO News Services2 -- 5,200 Equipment, tape, etc. 2,000 2,000 Salaries, TV Director, 10,000 10,000 Associate Director, talent "Harvest"3 52 weeks 10,u00 10,000 (all production costs) WMSB-TV plus 3—4 VTR outlets Specials (features)u H,BOO 3,600 Film and production Total $29,600 $33,600 Source of current budget figure: cbtained from Dr. Howard L. Miller, project leader, agricultural extension-research infor- mation, Department of Information Services, Michigan State University. 2Included are all the production and salary costs included in Table 7. 3"Harvest" is a weekly half~hour show produced at WEBB—TV by ' the Cooperative Extension Service and made available to other ' stations. See Table l. 4 . - - "Spec1als" are public serVice shows or segments produced on an irregular basis and on a wide variety of "timely” topics. 7l Limitatiogs of the Study While this study indicated that Michigan television newscasts do offer an outlet for HSU's agricultural information at this time, there are many obvious limitations to the study which should be noted. For example, all of the news directors in this study were located at commercial television stations in Michigan. News directors in other states may not have reacted in the same way. Many judgments by news directors are so subjective that changes in the personnel occupying news director positions could alter the survey's findings. While this survey showed the average news director had occupied that position for u.7 years, it should also be noted that three of the news directors had occupied their jobs for less than two years and, at two more stations, there were no news directors at the time of the survey. This mobility among news direc- tors, plus changes in a station's policy and/or management, could also alter survey findings. Results of the study represent the news director's judgments on a particular day -— the day he was interviewed. No check was made for reliability or stability of these judgments over time. The hypothetical film clips evaluated by the news directors in this study were submitted to the news directors in written form. Thus, the news directors could only imagine the film clips' visual content. Furthermore, the film clips were limited in number and subject matter, and the breakdown into various categories (”general interest," "promotional,” "technical," and "agricultural interest") was only as effective as the author's ability to write them to fit these categories. 72 Finally, and most important, even if MSU is successful in getting some of its agricultural information on television newscasts, this will only mean that viewers watching the newscasts will be made awgge of some of the research and extension activities of MSU‘s agricultural staff. The present study provides no indication of the response of the news audience to these news and feature items. Implications for Further Research This study only began to scratch the surface in terms of revealing potential usage for university agricultural information on television newscasts. For example, similar studies could be conducted in other states. It is likely that findings in a more agricultural state such as Toma or a highly urban state snob as New York would be different from those in Michigan. And several follow—up studies on the Michigan survey could be made. A similar survey at another time might show some interesting trends in the use of MSU's agricultural information. This might be -especially revealing if MSU's agricultural information staff follows the recommendations listed in this study. iore thorough_studies are needed to investigate some of the variables touched upon only briefly here. For example, an intense study could be made of the "significant others" who influence the television news director, particularly when he is selecting the kinds of stories to use in newscasts. For example, it should be worthwhile to find out if a television news director behaves like the telegraph editors studied by Gieber who were "selecting news items about 73 Specific groups, not what news did tg_or‘fgr_the reader." (9:u30) Another research project might involve a more thorough comparison of the television news "gatekeeper" with the telegraph and/or newspaper "gatekeeper." For example, there is an element of television newscasting which, for want of a better term, could be called “show business.” This is the attempt to provide visually dramatic items because people watch television. It might be inter— esting to find out at what point in the news director's scheme a story with visual appeal is selected over one of a more "newsy" nature. Then, if possible, comparisons could be made between a television news director's "placement” of the "visual appeal" story within a newscast and the relative "placement" of the same or similar story in the state and local news of a newspa er. Some other future research might help to answer these questions: 1. What effect, if any, will a one~minute film clip on MSU's agricultural research or extension activities have on the viewers who 'see the newscast? Can they recall what they saw? Have any of their Opinions of agriculture and/or the University been changed? Have they gained any new information? is the new information of any use to them? 2. What are the criteria for judging film clips and what are the values in determining film quality? What are the effects of different forms of script writing and film continuity on the news directors' value judgments? 3. When an "agricultural" news or feature or informational item is written or rewritten so that it is of “general interest," is 71+ the message seriously distorted by the time it reaches the television viewer? In other words, what are the limits and/or effects of "popu— larizing" certain technical or scientific agricultural information? 10. 11. 12. 13. 1”. REFERENCES Arneson, Wilfred Milton. "A Survey of Some Programming Practices of Radio Farm Directors." Unpublished M.A. thesis, Michigan State University, 1951. Backstrom, Charles H., and Mursh, Gerald D. Survey Research. 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"The 'Gate Keeper': A Case Study in the Selec- tion of News.” Journalism Quarterly) Vol. 27 (Fall, 1950), 383—90. Woods, John, Extension Television Specialist, University of Illinois. Private interview at the national meeting of the American Association of Agricultural College Editors, Lincoln, Nebraska, July 12,1967. Wright, Karl T. ”Economic Prospects of Far mners." Project '80‘:: Rural Michigan Now and in_}982.. Research Report No. 97. East Lansing, Michigan: Agricultural Experiment Station, Michigan State University, 1966. Appendix A Questionnaire Used in Survey 78 79 Television News Survey Joseph J. Marks Dept. of Information Services Michigan State University A. DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION '1. 2. Age Years of experience in broadcasting Jobs (list) What other jobs have you had (office, factory, farm, etc.)? Years at this station as news director ? Educational background (academic.education; technical training schools; etc.): Birthplace: Other places lived (places and dates): Father's occupation: 80 Page 2 B. QUANTITY OF NEWS SHOWS AND STAFF r 1. Number of news shows per day? ______per week? 2. Length of shows? 3. No. and length of above in which news director is involved: u. How many people help news director put these shows together? (Include full—time and fractions for part—time personnel) 5. Do you ever confer with anyone (station manager or anyone else) about the content of a news show before putting it on the air? Explain. 6. Who decides what goes on the air (news shows, that is)? 7. Who does the on-the-air work? 8. Do you ever listen (and take heed} of anyone's opinion of your news shows (wife, pastor, station manager, etc.)? 81 Page 3 C. AUDIENCE 1. Please estimate the size of the audience for your news shows: 2. What kind of people are these (urban, rural, farm, nonfarm, factory, etc.)? Page 4 D. 82 NEWS SHOW CONTENT 1. In addition to the material you get from the wire services and from your news staff's coverage, where would you say your other news and feature material comes from? How much of this do you use? What kind of stuff is it? (slides, film, pictures, releases, sound—on~film, video tape, etc.) What do you think of the material you receive from these other sources? (If some are good, why? If some are bad, why?) What can these other sources do to improve their materials? Do you throw many away without looking at them? Why? Do you ever give these materials to anyone else at the station? Who? 83 Page 5 E. FORMAT OF MATERIALS (outside wire services and own coverage) , 1. Rank the form of release you would use most often: script, no visuals script, still pictures script, slides script, silent film sound-on—film sound-on video tape 2. Supposing I sent you a film that you wanted for a news show. How long should it be? 3. Would you prefer to cover a news event or feature yourself, rather than having someone send you the material? Do you have the equipment, staff and budget for coverage of Other than local news events or features? EXplain: 9. Do you ever use any releases, film features, etc., from Michigan State University? ‘_ Do they come directly from the university or are they taken from the wire? 5. If you get anything directly from MSU, please comment about its quality and content. 89 Page 6 F. NEWS AND FEATURE CRITERIA (Look at the titles and descriptions listed below. Each includes a silent, color film accompanied by a script. Each is about one and one—half minutes long. Now assume that each arrives on a normal news day (one per day). ° Rate each separately according to the categories listed. In total or in part, I would...* Probably Possibly Not use use use TITLE: "Think Mink" DESCRIPTION: Story of how scientists help mink ranchers c0pe with the vicious, cantan- kerous mink; how mink pelts are turned into mink garments; why mink garments are so ex- pensive; and why just 200 Michigan mink ranch- ers can boast a $7 million mink industry——- sixth largest in the U.S. TITLE: "Hibernatiug Apples" DESCRIPTION: Tells late research developments which make it possible to keep apples (and other fruits and vegetables) fresh and crisp for months after harvest. The trick is to store the apples in "controlled atmosphere" where high levels of carbon dioxide and low levels of oxygen reduce the apples' rate of breathing and deterioration. TITLE: "New Food Research Facilities Opened" DESCRIPTION: New facilities for Michigan State University's food science department were Opened this week. Film shows research in progress to (1) develop new turkey products, (2) extend the keeping quality of mushrooms by bombarding them with radiation, and (3) im- prove the taste and nutrition of eggs. TITLE: "Inertial PrOpulsion Machine DeveIOped" DESCRIPTION: Film shows scientist operating scale model of inertial prOpulsion machine he develOped. The strange—looking machine operates on the theory of inertia and can conquer the slickest, iciest terrain without slippage. This is only the fourth basic type of propulsion developed in the history of the world (the oth— ers are traction, jet and prOpeller) and offers fantastic implications for travel on earth or in outer Space. Page 7 85 Probably Possibly Not use *Note: use use TITLE: "Cow Fertility Enzyme Discovered" DESCRIPTION: Researchers have found the enzyme that capacitates sperm and makes it capable of ’fertilizing an egg. The discovery could great— ly reduce infertility problems in cows. At present, Michigan dairymen lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year because some cows cannot be bred and therefore will not produce milk. TITLE: "Cooling the Beet Generation" DESCRIPTION: Scientists show new technique they're developing to cool sugar beets and thus reduce sugar losses which cost beet growers and processors about $1 million each year. TITLE: "Science Reshapes Trees" DESCRIPTION: Basic genetic research and care- ful analysis of tree origin help foresters as they seek knowledge about tree color and grow— ing) efflblcupy. Film and SCI'Ip'L explain Lin; factors which influence tree size, shape and color. TITLE: "Tiptoe Through the Tulips...In Winter!" DESCRIPTION: Michigan State University's Dept. of Horticulture starts tulips blooming in winter for the benefit of visitors who want to tour the university's greenhouses. Varieties from throughout the world help to give the campus an air of Springtime while snow is falling outside. If news director will not use these on his news show, ask if he would give the films to anyone else at the station to use...or if he'd like us to send these to someone else at the station. 86 Page 8 G. USE OF AGRICULTURAL RELEASES 1. Do you use agricultural stories in your newscasts? 2. I should tell you that I am the news director for Michigan State University's Agricultural Experiment Station and send out stories and films on agricultural research. All of the stories and films you just rated are about some of our agricultural research projects which include studies of pests and pesticides, deveIOpment of new food products, and research on fish, wildlife, trees, pacl