Kare 11 Sunrise

Since being introduced to blogs and RSS News Feeds a few years ago, I haven't been one to watch my local television news stations for information. It really surprised me when I sat down the other day and actually paid attention to what was on these news broadcasts. I watched the Kare 11 Sunrise News this morning at 7 am. I was able to see about the first thirty minutes of the program. The first three or four minutes were devoted to a preview of the morning's programming and headline reviews of the weeks elections and the final vote counting in Virginia and Montana. From here, the program jumped into the local weather reports, filled with winter storm warnings! Then, there were a couple of short news segments on local community stories. For example, the first highlighted a charity event that the restaurant Dave and Buster's is putting on in order to raise money for the Emergency Food Network with the holiday season coming up. The second short report highlighted Westview Elementary School in Apple Valley. The clip focused on workshops that the students have been using in order to build community in the school and resolve conflicts. Both students and teachers at the school were interviewed. Lastly, right before I turned the program off, they were transitioning into an interview with a national college admissions counselor who was giving tips for high school students getting ready to apply for college.

During this thirty minute clip, I have to admit that I wasn't entirely surprised by what I saw. There was very brief coverage of the week's national political events, and then the focus completely shifted to national news. The rest of the stories were really geared towards the typical viewers of the Sunrise news show. Although I haven't read any demographic statistics, I would imagine that many of the viewers during this early time are parents who are getting their kids ready and out the door for school that day. The content of the news clips-the focus on the elementary school and the college admissions counselor-were very well suited for this type of audience.

Overall, I had mixed feelings about the broadcast. Personally, I think that local news is very important and I really try to stay connected to the happenings in my neighborhood and community. I usually do so through neighborhood newspapers and local publications, but I definitely see the appeal in watching stories about your community on the news. However, the local news stories presented in the broadcast didn't seem to represent a wide range of opinions or experiences. I almost felt as if there was no important news going on that day, so they filled the time in with stories that, although very interesting, did not bring up bigger news stories. I also think that one can make a mistake relying entirely on local news coverage for information on current events because so much is filtered out through the lens of the local news programs.