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.
"News is how people learn what it means to live in 'this place.' And to have somebody who may not even have been in your community ostensibly deciding what's news in your community, well, I think that's alarming," said Hood, an award-winning television producer who worked in the Denver market for several years.
For generations, small-town broadcasters have supplemented network content with news, information and public affairs programming tailored for hometown audiences, giving listeners what one researcher cited by Hood calls "a collective sense of place."
The practice of news outsourcing arose with the adoption of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which opened the doors for media consolidation but less competition. The act has led to the creation of powerful radio conglomerates such as the 1,100-station Clear Channel network. Hood's research shows Denver's KOA Radio formerly produced local news for Omaha, some 540 miles away, and other Clear Channel affiliates, but has since ended the practice.
In addition, Cleveland provided local news content to Milwaukee during a five-year period and has been delivering local news to Pittsburgh. Hood's fieldwork indicates the practice is still widespread in some markets, and that larger cities are receiving outsourced news as well.
Hood argues that news outsourcing further erodes news media credibility and - all too often - such centralized decision-making is based on cultural and geographical ignorance. Mispronounced place names and surnames are particularly telling indications that stations in outside markets have produced "local" news for smaller stations, she says.
Hood believes the news-outsourcing model fails local news markets. "News in itself is like its own entity," she said. "It's been a trend in music shows for a long time, but not much research has been done in how it's done for news."
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