CBC Edmonton

Status
Not open for further replies.

jellotor

Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2004
Messages
1,077
Location
Hamilton, ON
radiolalaland said:
It's pretty bad eh, when the assistant on the pressroom floor of a newpaper or a janitor at the local tv station knows more about programming scanners for the media they work for compared to the actual people that go out to look for the news when the news can be right there for them to hear then go get the right shot.

I know, I used to be one of those punks and helped the media program there scanners. And ya gotta laugh when you go to program there radio and it's only a 10 or 20 ch. scanner that has frequencies programmed in from 3 or 4 years back and maybe if they're lucky 3 or 4 frequencies actually still work. And they turn around and tell ya, ya, there's nothing out there to listen to anymore. We haven't heard anything on the radio in a long time.

Gee, I wonder why.

But yes, I do understand that there's more to the media than just sitting at the desk with the scanner going, but it does help.

I mean, c'mon, if you're gonna learn the tricks of the trade, it may also help to have some of the common tools of the trade to maybe help you along the way.

It's all about time and money, friends...

This may not be the final word on TV news, but I'll give it a shot. Audiences are fragmented by choices and it's getting harder and harder to have a popular local newscast. This affects the company's ability to sell advertising and make money. Thus, the trend is to hire less experienced (read: cheaper) staff and combine two or three jobs into one (videographer) in order to save money. Technology helps this along by providing smaller and easier-to-use tools (handycams and laptop computers) so that anyone can be a shooter/editor/reporter. Generally, on-air quality suffers...and the whole situation repeats itself because the local news product isn't as good (read: attractive to audiences and advertisers) as it used to be. No capital money for new cameras, scanners or anything else.

Based on this model, you can suspend your disbelief over the fact that an assignment editor--who now mans a desk once run by 2 or 3 people and really is just doing the job temporarily until he/she gets promoted to producer or reporter--doesn't know anything about scanners and couldn't learn if he/she had the time. Many stations, especially in areas where there is no competition, will gladly settle for pictures of the scene after the fact...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top