• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Best of Chicago

  • Home
  • About Best of Chicago
  • Best of Chicago eBook
  • Index
  • Subscribe

Best example of the failing of local television

by Sarah Conway
November 5, 2015November 4, 2015Filed under:
  • City Life

TV/media coverage of regular and genuine Chicago people, streets, communities and neighborhoods

White people are thirty-two percent of Chicago’s population (and just over half of all Chicagoland) but the ratio of people seen on TV is nowhere near those numbers. On Channels 2-5-7-9-32,  “local news” is overwhelmingly about crime and disaster, frequently African American. The stations’ rationale is to broadcast what sells commercials to consumers who have money. Similarly, on public TV, the emphasis is on programs that can maximize contributions. Financial considerations are the first priority, rather than responsibility to the local people they are required to by the FCC to “serve in the public interest, convenience and necessity.” I’ve been watching TV since it started and producing programs for decades, but now Chicagoans under forty almost never watch local TV. It’s mostly irrelevant to them. Local arts, performance, neighborhood personalities and works by local filmmakers are practically invisible.

In this era of corporate domination of all TV, on all channels, genuinely local is the exception, not the rule. It’s time to reevaluate priorities of local programing and commit resources to new ways to use the airwaves for genuine benefit of all the public. We all need to see our own worlds on TV.

—Tom Weinberg, President and founder, Media Burn Archive (Film 50)

Best of Chicago 2015

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket

Related

Tagged:
  • local news
  • local TV
  • media coverage
  • Tom Weinberg
  • TV coverage

Post navigation

Previous Post Best place to keep up with crime and mayhem
Next Post Best reimagined nachos

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for Newcity’s free email newsletter

Popular Stories

  • Best waiter in a pizzeria
  • Best voodoo shop
  • Best way to describe Chicago weather
  • Best Lifestyle Blog to Keep you Inspired On and Offline
  • Best Springtime Reminder We’re All Doomed

Chatter

  • Lauren Jiggetts to join ‘WGN Morning News’ on Best-looking female local TV personality
  • Tyler Watkins on Best waiter in a pizzeria
  • Meat. Meet. Me. | Brenna Ginsberg on Best dance performance by recent graduates
  • South Loop News Recap: 11/30/16 | South Loop Living on Best Bookstores to Guard Over the Culture
  • Jason Lazarus on Best revival of a once great art writing platform

Newcity Sites

  • *Newcity.com
  • Newcity Art
  • Newcity Design
  • Newcity Film
  • Newcity Lit
  • Newcity Music
  • Newcity Network
  • Newcity Resto
  • Newcity Stage

Copyright Newcity Communications, Inc. © 2019

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.