It's Time to Put Up or Shut Up--Redefining News.

• Author: SALTZMAN, JOE
• Position: Television news - Brief Article

A FORMER STUDENT, reading this columnist's opinion of local television news, called me recently to tell me that he was tired of hearing constant criticism of how bad it is without anyone offering a realistic alternative. He said he learned in journalism school that news was what it always has been--crime, corruption, the unusual, the shocking. Why should he and his colleagues be damned for doing what newspapers--and later television--have been doing for hundreds of years? "Check out `The Front Page.' Check out your fact sheets in your beginning journalism class--weather disasters, fires, murders, accidents, obituaries. That's news and that's what we do every night on TV. So leave us alone"

My former student has a point. As long as the definition of news is essentially city crime news putting emphasis on traditional "man bites dog" measurements, the unusual occurrence--and yes, murders, rapes, and car chases still rank as unusual--will dominate the news of the day. A better answer, however, is what should a one-hour television newscast look and sound like? That's roughly 45 minutes of information. Here's one way to do it. With the availability of satellite news services, any local television station can follow this example:

The first thing to do is to divide the news of the day into four categories of seven minutes apiece: international, national, state, and local. Each package would have its own major story running three or more minutes. The rest of the news would be neatly summed up in each category. Stories would be rated in a simple way--their impact on the greatest number of viewers. For example, a bill in Congress or the state legislature that influences the economic lives of viewers might be the dominant story. A murder would be quickly reported because it has little influence on anyone's life except those involved.

The lead stories of the day would come from these four packages. The criteria would not be sensationalism or entertainment value. The key criterion would be what story would have the most effect on the greatest number of lives. It might be an international or domestic crisis. It might be the stock market or a piece of legislation affecting health care. It would definitely not be a news story based on the latest television movie to appear on the local news' network or an endless car chase.

These four packages, emphasizing the important news and news trends of the day, would fill 28 of the 45 minutes available. That would...