Be Better, TV News
Local TV news can do better at reporting on the protests — and everything else — to build trust with audiences.
Like many Americans, I’ve spent hours watching television news over the past few weeks, particularly my local stations in Los Angeles.
Some of the coverage has been very good. Laurie Perez reported live from Beverly Hills with careful, thoughtful information for hours as police tear gassed protesters. (Her subsequent Twitter thread is worth reading as well.)
Some of the coverage has been awful, like the stations that lingered on crimes in real time. I heard one anchor express astonishment at the growing number of people showing up at superstore with shattered windows in Long Beach, even as the station continued to broadcast the name and location of the seemingly unguarded business.
It’s easy to criticize and even easier to dismiss local TV news, but that’s a mistake. According to Pew, about as many respondents prefer to get their local news from TV as online, and that number is even higher for Black Americans. But a majority of Black and Latinx audience members also say the news media doesn’t portray their community accurately. Meanwhile, more people say they distrust news organizations every year.
As Lorraine Ali pointed out in the L.A. Times, local TV news is still surprisingly relevant, not despite social media, but because of it. In contrast to the unfiltered, potentially bot-ridden firehose of Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, TV news can offer current, continuously updated and vetted information.
Now is the time for TV news to step up and rethink the format to be fresher, more inclusive, and more trustworthy. Here are some suggestions for how to do that.
Bring in more voices from more places.
It’s easier, more convenient and more predictable to put anchors in the studio talking over helicopter footage, but that setup feels tired and limiting. In an era when everyone has a phone, there’s no need to keep going back to the same few commentators. Reach out to witnesses on the ground via phone and text, verify social media posts and encourage viewers to share what’s happening in their communities, including those often forgotten. Maybe you can’t get the chopper out to San Bernardino, but there’s no excuse for ignoring the entire Inland Empire until some dramatic video of looting at a pharmacy appears, as happened the weekend of May 30.
Don’t forget to talk to the people marching. One recent study found that news organization quoted protesters twice as often if they were agitating for the environment or gender equity rather than anti-racist causes. Journalists have a responsibility to report not only what’s happening but why — the reasons behind the actions.
Don’t keep repeating disturbing or dramatic video.
USC professor Allissa Richardson has published an incisive explanation of why cellphone video of violence against black people should be viewed “with solemn reserve,” the equivalent of photographs of lynching. As she points out, white victims of high-profile crimes are often remembered with memorials. Broadcast news should use restraint and respect with videos that show brutality and agony.
While it may not be as agonizing, footage with violence or thievery should also be used with care to avoid reducing a complex situation to a simple, and misleading, narrative. I know hundreds of peaceful protesters marched on the streets of Santa Monica for hours on May 31, because I was there. (We can argue about whether journalists and/or journalism professors should attend protests in another post.) The image that remained in my mind was of the crowd kneeling in silence for two minutes, but the video I saw most frequently on the news was a forty-five second clip of people running out of a sneaker store with armfuls of boxes.
While we’re at it, let’s make it standard to put the date, location and time clearly and prominently on all video footage. Most video now comes with embedded metadata. Why not show it to the viewers? It would help fight fakery by adding one more layer of verification, and just as importantly, alert the audience when they’re literally watching old news.
What to show instead of those juicy video moments? See my first point above. Instead, producers could choose create maps with the location and numbers of protests, live calls with community members or more time with reporters who have specific, clear information to update.
Prioritize reporting, and choose your words with care.
Unlike twenty or even ten years ago, the audience can clap back at reporters. KTLA reporter Doug Kolk apologized to Cardi B for suggesting she was “promoting violence” in her video statement about the protests. She and her fans quickly pointed out via Twitter that her video also urged people to vote. Kolk admitted the incident was “a learning experience for me, not only as a journalist, but as a human being.” Breaking news can be stressful and chaotic, but every choice an editor, reporter or producer makes has consequences.
Local TV news may be a preferred platform for the mayor, chief of police and other authorities, but it shouldn’t be a free ride. Even in a remote press conference, reporters should be asking city officials how and why critical decisions were made about police tactics and strategy, and about relevant past records of police misconduct. Holding authorities accountable is part of the job.
Finally, I think we should remind reporters it’s OK to be human. I appreciated hearing Pat Harvey, who covered the unrest in 1992, describe how authorities responded then, and seeing reporters like Perez and Jeff Nguyen show their fear, fatigue and pain in difficult circumstances. Viewers don’t need opinions, but they need to know there’s a real person bringing them information. Extra shoutout to Harvey for also engaging constructively with commenters on Twitter.
The stakes are high.
As someone who’s worked as a TV news producer, and now teaches students the basics of broadcast journalism, I know putting together a broadcast under deadline can be a complicated, collaborative and challenging process. But I also believe people’s declining level of trust in news is a serious issue, and it’s our responsibility to take that seriously.
Local TV news counts. Let’s make it better.
Thanks to my colleagues, Professors Laura Davis, Stacy Scholder and Miki Turner, for thoughtful comments and contributions.
