"AND WHILE THE ECONOMY IS DOWN IN THE DUMPS... ONE FAMILIAR PLACE IS SEEING A BOOST IN BUSINESS. MID-MISSOURIANS ARE CHECKING INTO THIS FREE PLACE TO HANG OUT."
"NOTHING IS STOPPING STUDENTS FROM ADDING TO M-U'S ADMISSIONS. EVEN WITH THE BAD ECONOMY ENROLLMENT IS UP. THAT'S NEXT ON KOMU 8 NEWS TODAY."
"THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS CAPTURED THEIR SIXTH SUPER BOWL TITLE TONIGHT... BUT WITH THE STRUGGLING ECONOMY... HOW DOES THAT CHANGE SUPERBOWL CELEBRATIONS IN MID-MISSOURI? THAT'S NEXT ON KOMU 8 NEWS AT 10. COVERAGE YOU CAN COUNT ON."
There's no denying that the economy is, well, not so hot. But economy seems to have become the new weather. Instead of: "Well the weather is warming up, and so is . . ." it's become: "the economy is down, but . . ." or: " 'such-and-so' is doing 'this-or-that' despite the struggling economy."
The economy is the worst it's been in recent history, true. But is it necessary to make a reference to it at every moment possible? Let's get interactive here...go into iNews and search the 2009 archive for "economy". In the box that says 'maximum hits' type in 50. How far back does the search have to go to fill those 50 hits? As of March 7...only 3 days! Now set 'maximum hits' to 500. How far is that now. Once again, as of March 7, it takes us back to the end of January. That's 500 mentions of the economy in about 35 days! Who's doing the math? Don't bother, I got this. That's 14-15 times a day on average. And that's just searching for 'economy' as in 'struggling economy', not 'economic' as in 'economic struggle'.
Feel free to disagree...maybe it's not too much. But what I feel like what the newsroom as a whole is doing is using the economy to build what would normally be non-stories into either tales of horror or make-shift, fuzzy feel-good stories about businesses succeeding 'despite the dismal economy'. I use the word using because instead of generating quality story ideas, we're taking the easy way out by going to a business that is or is not doing well and trying to take the 'angle' of the economy's effect on them. But that can be so superficial. Did anyone notice what happened with Square D in Columbia the past few weeks? Two weeks ago, an engineering magazine named Square D the top industrial plant in 2008. A quote from that story: "Despite a faltering economy, the company has increased shipments by 153 percent since 2004." Well that's great, but payback's a - well...you know. What happened to Square D this Friday? They cut 67 jobs. So much for them being so successful "despite a faltering economy."
On the producing end, I think this reliance on the economy to catch viewers attention (or at least scare them into watching) pervades in our work as well. It's the scaring thing that concerns me the most. This offense occurs most in headlines and teases. Are many of the stories we tease related to the economy? Sure. But is there a more creative way to tease them without leaning on the crutch that is the economy? I don't know for sure, but I think we can dig a little bit deeper and try to find out.
For KOMU 8 News, I'm Andrew McKibbin, hoping that 'despite the struggling economy', we can maintain the quality of our news delivery.
