A Year In The News

As I read through the article by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, I am very intrigued. One of the biggest debates, I think, between the public and the media is media coverage. Throughout my years here at IC in my journalism classes, professors have talked about the struggle for journalists to report on the public's top interests. As seen in the Public Interest vs. Media Coverage graphic, 12 out of the 15 issues polled come in with high public interest and little media coverage. More than 50% of the public wanted to follow closely the rising price of gas in 2007 but the media only gave it less than 10% of its coverage. To me, that is pathetic.
In the past three years at school we have talked about the lack of world news coverage here in the U.S. and people say it's because news consumers don't care for that kind of coverage and all they want to see is celebrity coverage, but seen here it is not true! I think that the average person likes to follow news that most directly effects them and their community, that's why there is local news. I think that it would be far better for the networks to cover international news than covering the same national stories that local news media across the country are reporting on. This way, the consumer can get their local and national news from one source and rely on the network newscasts for their global news awareness.
Working at the NBC London Bureau in the summer of 2007 gave me a lot of perspective on how differently news is covered in the rest of the world. The BBC is almost all international news and not just reporting on Britain's national interests abroad like U.S. world coverage does. With so many people complaining about media coverage here in the U.S. I thinnk we need to have more niche outlets. If there was a more distinct line between news organizations and what they are covering, then people can know where to go to get the information they want.