Outsourcing Local News For Smaller Communities

OUTSOURCING LOCAL NEWS FOR SMALLER COMMUNITIES
[SOURCE: University of Colorado press release]
A new study by a University of Colorado at Boulder journalism professor that spotlights the growing trend of "news outsourcing" - when big-city radio stations produce and package local news stories for sister stations in distant markets - has garnered the attention of federal regulators who are reviewing media ownership rules. More than 40 percent of radio stations produce news for one or more stations outside their own markets, according to data from the Radio-TV News Directors Association cited in a study by Lee Hood, assistant professor of broadcast journalism at CU-Boulder. Hood's research has captured the attention of the Federal Communications Commission, which will hold a meeting in Chicago on Thursday, Sept. 20, as part of a series of hearings around the country revisiting media ownership rules. One of the FCC commissioners has asked Hood to cite her study during the hearings. Hood's study, the lead report in the March issue of the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, focuses on news outsourcing and its effects on the quality and relevance of local news coverage in smaller communities. The "hub and spoke" system enables large radio conglomerates to employ fewer people and cut costs, but authenticity, regional nuances and topical public affairs reporting are lost in the process, Hood says.
http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2007/357.html