How long should a local newscast be?
I’ve lived in very small towns, small cities, and larger cities. I’ve watched television stations from very large cities. In every case, the local news was 30 minutes long. Wouldn’t you suspect that the amount of local news would vary greatly and would be directly associated with the size of the population covered? So why is the news always 30 minutes long?
Part of our local newscast tonight (CTV Saskatoon, in case you’re wondering) included a description of the afternoon weather. Basically, it was hot and sunny then the sky became dark and cloudy. There was a thunderstorm then the clouds cleared and it was sunny again. That needed to be on the news?
Maybe I should just be the “glass half full” kind of girl and be thankful that most days here are slow news days. No news is good news. No?
3 comments
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July 15, 2008 at 8:06 am
crazybengal
It was sunny…and then it got dark and cloudy? Holy shit!
July 18, 2008 at 9:09 am
Eric
maybe the different cities should switch newscasts with each other just to see if anyone notices.
July 18, 2008 at 11:35 am
Michele
That would be funny. Honestly, we have so many channels from so many different cities and it sometimes takes me until part way through a newscast to realize that it’s not our local channel.