The Umbrella's

If I find myself with absolutely nothing else to do, I may from time to time watch a local news broadcast. When this does occur, KARE 11 (the local Minneapolis syndicate of NBC) is my broadcast of choice. I find their production value of a slightly better quality, even though their content is definitely that of a local news show.

On Tuesday, November 11 I viewed the 10:00 airing of KARE 11 news. The lead story focused on the declining price of dairy products and the impact it is having local farmers. The piece ran almost three minutes and featured many interviews with a farmer struggling to make it on his family farm. The next story centered around a hockey coach (from my hometown in WI!) who had been sexually involved with one of his female players. This story was just under two minutes long. From here, short stories were read by the anchors with a mix of local and national importance. Of the three stories featured, 2 of the three non-local stories had a local connection.

After a commercial break, there was a five minute human interest story about a soldier in the Vietnam war writing letters home to his wife. This story was pure human interest, and repeatedly used the word "emotion." The second half of the show was completed with weather and sports.

The commercials of the show were almost completely geared at the middle-aged, middle class families. Menards, Fleet Farm, Hospitals, and a few car companies all had advertisements. Since this is probably the target audience of the show, this ad strategy makes sense.

Being of generation that gets most of its news online, of the entire 30 minute broadcast, I probably would have viewed 2 stories and possibly the weather had I been on their website. This leads me to my own viewing habits. I do not subscribe to any cable or satellite packages, so I get my TV over the air using a DTV converter box. I watch only a couple of hours of TV/week, with "The Office" being the only program I view on a regular basis. This is aired on NBC, which is owned by General Electric.

My internet is provided by Comcast. The sites I visit most are probably CNN.com (owned by Time Warner) and YouTube, which is to the best of my knowledge still independent(?). I rarely listen to the radio since I have a CD player in my car and can choose my own music. If I do happen upon the radio, 93X(93.7, part of the Disney) and 89.3 The Current (a part of Minnesota Public Radio) are my stations of choice.

I feel that the media that I choose to view is a mix of large, umbrella corporations and more independently minded operations. The type of product you receive from these two sources can vary, especially in terms of content. Umbrella companies' content will often be uncontroversial, but is often entertaining enough to keep some of my attention. Smaller companies and media outlets are more likely to turn me on to something I have not heard of yet. While these media products are not always 100% to my liking, more often than not they are, and I certainly appreciate the effort they make to bring me something new.