Why, exactly, do TV reporters stand out in the cold?
One of the cardinal sins of TV news is to waste viewers’ time
By now, perhaps you have seen video of the KWWL-TV reporter in Waterloo who got called in Thursday morning to do a morning newscast full of live shots in sub-zero weather. He’s normally a sports guy and throughout the morning he found himself wondering what, exactly, he was doing standing out in bitter weather telling everyone else to stay inside. The video runs a minute-and-a-half and is worth watching if, for no other reason, than to provide a bit of comic relief in this stretch of awful weather.
The Twitter-sphere loved Mark Woodley’s performance. Among the hundreds of comments he received: “Perhaps sadly for you, you have become far and away my favorite weather reporter”, “I’m crying”, and “Get this guy a primetime role on the Weather Channel and I’d watch. Hilarious.”
Reporters hate doing these live shots. I recall a reporter who did so many live shots by the side of a slippery highway that in his final report of the morning, he said “Everywhere I look, I see cars in the ditches in a 365 degree circle around me.” 365 degrees in a circle? Well, his brain was understandably frozen by that point.
Why DO reporters stand outside in bitter cold, snowstorms and the rain to tell us it’s bitterly cold, snowy or rainy out? The smart aleck answer we always gave in the newsroom was “Because it’s your job!” There’s an element of truth to that. It’s what reporters do. We go places, be it a city council meeting, a huge fire, or a football game – and tell viewers what’s going on because viewers can’t be there to experience it for themselves. So, reporting on the weather is not that different. True, everyone can look out the window and see what’s going on, but if you’re planning holiday travel, it can help to experience weather conditions by hearing what the live reporter has to say.
I’ll concede the point that weather live shots have become far too routine. Asking a sports guy to come in and talk about cold weather for two or three hours while standing on a dark, empty street is lame. There’s a real absence of information the viewer can use to help plan his or her day. In most newsrooms, when severe weather moves in, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to send a reporter out live.
There are a couple of reasons why stations do it. Research shows that viewers sit up and take notice anytime there’s a live shot from the field. Live shots are usually way more interesting, more visual, than an anchor sitting in studio. A newscast with a lot of live shots has more energy. So, stations are always looking for ways to be live.
Station managers would be wise to avoid putting their staff in positions where they feel so ridiculous that they talk on air about how ridiculous they feel. Managers should think about what is to be gained from a weather live shot. Instead of automatically ordering a reporter and photographer into the field, think about it from the viewer’s perspective. What new information can be communicated? What could the viewer learn? If all a reporter is doing is saying things that are perfectly obvious to everyone, then it’s just a waste of time. And one of the cardinal sins of TV news is to waste viewers’ time.
There’s a useful tool some stations have now that really does inform viewers better – the storm chaser vehicle. It allows the reporter to sit comfortably in the back while a photographer drives the vehicle, which is equipped with several cameras inside and out. The reporter can switch on a camera outside to show street conditions from a moving vehicle, talk about how slippery the pavement is, what speed they’re able to drive, and any problems they’ve seen. In the course of a newscast, the crew can cover a lot of ground, showing that conditions in West Des Moines might be completely different than Ankeny. It’s way better than a reporter standing for hours in one location, and the crew stays safe and warm.
Mark Woodley is not the first reporter to gripe about doing meaningless live shots, and he probably won’t be the last. He definitely had a point, though if I was his manager, I’d suggest he express his views in my office and not live on TV.
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Dave, very well said. Reminds me of a scene in Major League...center fielder runs under a fly-ball and at the last second turns and makes a "circus" catch. Coach greets him in the dugout saying,"nice catch...don't ever do it again". Fun to watch though. LOVE what you guys are doing with this writers group!
Nevertheless, Mark persisted! A thoroughly engaging take on going live. Now, we need to figure out how you can go live with your column!😀