Oh, the News.

Minute-by-minute analysis
(N) - News; (W) - Weather; (S) - Sports; (E) - Entertainment
2 minutes - Foreclosure Scare (N)
3.5 minutes - Sequence of 5 different stories (N)
3 minutes - Commercials
2.2 minutes - Mild Weather exclusive from dog park (W/E)
3 minutes - Commercials
4 minutes - Weather Forecast (W)
4.5 minutes - Sports (S)
3.25 minutes - Commercials
1 minute - Santas for Seniors (E)
30 seconds - Forecast reminder (W)
30 seconds - Wrap up

Out of the 29ish minutes of the broadcast, 5.5 minutes were committed to the news of the day, 7 minutes were dedicated to the weather, 4.5 minutes were all about sports, and 1 minute was dedicated to entertainment (make that 3.2 if you count the awkward dog park weather report as entertainment). A whopping 9 minutes was taken up by commercials. Wow.

Overall, I would say that Kare 11 has the best local news although I am not sure I exactly know why I think that. While I watched this news, I was also watching the Channel 5 news trying to compare the two offerings (I cannot handle Fox9 news). Kare11 seemed to be less flashy and just delivering the news for what it was worth. The two channels had almost identical programming, just delivering the news stories in a different order. Kare11 did have the awkward 4 minute Entertainment/Weather report about how mild the weather had been lately, with reporter Jana Shordahl, but was pretty straightforward. It was nice to learn, however, that I have no need to schedule an entire 30 minutes to watch the news at 6pm on any given night as the news was over in the first 6 minutes. There wasn't much fancy editing happening on the 6 o'clock news and I didn't feel as though there was much sneaky rhetoric taking place to influence the viewers - or maybe it is just because I had already read all of the news stories earlier that day.

That being said, I receive about 97% of my news from online sources. From Kare11 to CNN to Feminist News, I am slightly addicted to checking news sources every 2 hours or so. I am fascinated by reading the same news story from a variety of sources, seeing which sites highlight which stories, and finding out which local news sites jump on which local news stories first. Additionally, it is interesting to contrast what different news sources find as the important voices and angles within the same story. At the core of my information addiction is Minnesota Public Radio. If I listen to the radio, it is on MPR. If I stream online news, it is MPR. It could be that MPR is the one source I truly trust to find news that is important to the varied demographics of Minneapolis. It also could be that the massive corporations that own every other news source (or so it seems) are unreliable for reporting valid, unbiased news.

Clear Channel has been at the core of much criticism in the radio/music world. With the status as the largest owner of "full power AM, FM and shortwave radio stations and 12 radio channels on XM satellite radio" and also "the largest pure-play radio station owner and operator", Clear Channel possesses a lot of power over what millions of people are listening to. The power in this is absolutely staggering. From choosing what songs can and can't be played, to forming cultural identities via music playlists, news choices, and radio personalities, Clear Channel can directly inform a large amount of a person's thoughts, beliefs, and even identity.

Activity for critical analysis of news:
Students will identify three different media outlets for the area in which they live. These media sources must be based in the local area - three local tv stations, radio stations, etc. Students will identify who they believe the "core audience" of that media source to be and then back up this identification with specific examples of news choices, music choices, personality choices, language choices, etc. Ultimately, students will analyze how different outlets disseminate information based on the audience they are intending to reach. Additionally, students will be asked to critique the pros and cons of media outlets having target audiences. It would be incredibly interesting to have students interview members of the target audience to find out the reasons members of that audience do or do not choose to identify with a certain media source.