Television News Programs - Essay Example

April 30, 2007 Illustrative Essay on Television News Programs Gone are the days when a half-hour news programwould actually be a half-hour news program. Today television news programs run for more than thirty minutes and are crowded with a lot of “non-news items”. This has resulted in the dwindling down of the actual time spent in reporting “hard news”. Needless to say these non-news items are very distracting and at times annoying to viewers who want to hear the news. There are many non-news items that have made their way into news programs.

Advertisements, announcements and chitchat between members of the news team form the three most annoying non-news items that crowd the news programs today. To begin with, advertisements that are aired during news programs take away one’s attention from the news. In this regard local channels like 10TV and NBS4i are not any better when compared to national channels like ABC or CBS. The advertisements aired during the news include ads on cars, pharmaceuticals, fast-food chains and personal care products.

Most of these advertisements are fast paced, colorful and sometimes downright funny, while others seem to consolidate a lot of information in their thirty second slot. Although advertisements can engage the viewers for a while, there are other non-news items aired during news programs that can be irritating. For instance news programs are often littered with announcements telling viewers what will happen “at the top of the hour” or provide information on other programs that the channel would telecast later on.

Teasers like “A local high school goes up in flames. Will it affect classes on Monday?” is past bizarre (Local News Broadcast 5). Such announcements and teasers can get particularly frustrating for viewers who want to hear the news and get on with their chores. Even weather forecasters keep their viewers waiting when they mention that later on in the program they would give the weather predictions. The wait for weather predictions would sometimes end up being a good fifteen minutes. As if these announcements weren’t enough to get the viewers on edge, there are times when newscasters try to portray a friendly appearance but end up being downright annoying.

Infact the most irritating aspect of most of the news programs is the frequent friendly chitchat between members of the news team. Apart from the initial acknowledgement, newscasters often try to make small talks on how their recent vacation had been or convey their opinions and ideas on some of the news that they reported. Although it may be done with the intention of making viewers see how wonderfully human the newscasters are, it can be thoroughly annoying to sit though it when all one wants to know is the news that transpired during the day.

In conclusion the average news programs of today are filled with a lot of non-news items that can be very distracting and annoying to the viewers. Frequent breaks to air advertisements take away the viewer’s attention from the news. Similarly announcements and teasers that keep the viewers on hold can be very irritating. Even weather forecasters use teasers and keep viewers waiting. Again, frequent chitchat between the newscasters regarding news items is also very annoying. Hence considering the advertisements, announcements and chitchat between members of the news team that fill the news programs today, one can only wish that they were born during the time when a half hour news program would be just that – a half our news program.

Works Cited Local News Broadcast. Feb 26, 2006. April 28 2007. .