DIGITAL STORYTELLING!

1996). When referring to ‘the web,’ however, these journalists were talkingabout practicing convergence. Conversely, these same practitioners did notdiscuss the effect of the web on the overall newscast.In this study we investigated the characteristics of convergence and how two localtelevision news affiliates in the Tampa/St Petersburg market use convergence in anewscast, and whether convergence is of benefit to the viewer. What this study hasfound is that the principals of convergence have less to do with content and theproduction of news stories within a newscast and more to do with how the informationmay get to the viewer. Medium theory is helpful in dissecting how the grammar oftelevision is used to direct the viewer to another medium. It also suggests that themedium most referred to would be one that heightens the use of more senses, or thatincorporates itself within another, i.e. a website rather than a newspaper. And the waymost likely to direct would be by use of the visual.Here, convergence means to promote or market, cross promote, promote internally,promote externally and to do so without a clear rational plan for doing so. There islittle doubt, particularly as it pertains to WFLA, that convergence, as evidenced in thisstudy, includes marketing the news product with every possible opportunity and withlittle regard for the viewers or for the impact of the information.What is most distressing is the blurring of the lines between news copy andadvertising. The WFLA news anchors clearly recognize when they are being asked todeliver an advertisement rather than a news story, they still are not able to understandthat marketing their own product falls into the same broad category of advertising ormarketing. For example, on August 3 during the 6 p.m. newscast the primary maleanchor delivered a thirty-second, voice-over kicker. A kicker is usually the last story inthe show, designed to be upbeat and interesting. The story was about Sea World, one ofFlorida’s many theme parks. In essence the park will now be selling consumer passesover the Internet and local residents can take advantage of discounted rates. The lastsentence of the story reads “To find out more about how the procedure works, go toTBO.com, click on the links we mentioned, and click on Sea World E Tickets.”While the anchor was reading, the viewer was looking at pictures of dolphinsswimming on a computer screen. When the camera went back to the news set, we sawall four anchors getting ready for a wrap-up or good night. The prime anchor quicklysaid, “I think I just did a commercial!” the second anchor said “Yes you did.” And thesports and weather talent concurred. While all this took place the station copyrightlogo TBO.com appeared in a graphic on the bottom of the screen. Here, with both theverbal message of sending the viewer to TBO.com for more information about SeaWorld, plus the visual message contained in the copyright, it could be argued that theadvertising message also included marketing their own Internet platform. The anchorsseemed oblivious to the facts and the irony right in front of them.For all its claims that convergence is the wave of the future, and that thousands ofbroadcast stations now have an Internet presence, “…not a single site has attractedmore than 200,000 unique visitors per month.” This is a particularly important pointgiven that views for major newpaper sites average more than four million hits permonth (as cited in Anzur 2001). Nonetheless, this study found that the major thrustfor WFLA is to get people to the web. Nearly all of the references in the storiescarrying a convergence element led the viewer to TBO.com and not to the TampaTribune newspaper.Not everyone believes that this new media trend is beneficial. President Emeritus ofthe Poynter Institute, Robert Haiman, posits that the challenge for journalists is theirability to recognize that convergence can erode the prime objective of journalism—thatis to “inform the public about the public’s business, creating a society that is equippedwith the knowledge it needs to make the right civic decisions…”(Poynter, 2001).Haiman is not optimistic. He explains that many news gatekeepers now equate betterjournalism with ‘marketing’ and that ‘world-class reporters and writers with big noses,bad hairlines, speech impediments, or acne scars need not apply’ for jobs with anynewspaper outlet that has converged with television. Here again, this study wouldagree. While there have been newspaper practitioners reporting their work on othernewscasts on both WFLA and WSTP, and news executives involved in convergencestress that they are recruiting good reporters regardless of the platform, or medium,because the story belongs to the user/viewer, not to the platform (Bradley, 2001) in thisstudy, they are virtually non-existent in the two primary newscasts of the day—the 6p.m. and 11 p.m. news. This data includes only one single instance, one involving amajor newspaper investigative report, where a newspaper reporter appears on abroadcast. With Haiman (Poynter, 2001) this study concludes, “convergence may endup being good, maybe even very good, for media companies. We fear, however, “that itis going to be bad, and maybe even very bad, for journalism.”7Limitations and Future ResearchFuture ResearchThis study offers a preliminary interpretation of the role played by gatekeepers indetermining how to use the medium in a converged television news operation.Building on the findings set forth in this study, future research should examine a largerdata base. Findings may reveal an even more specific relationship between the contentof a news broadcast and information actually provided to the viewer. Also, whether theviewer is asked to go to another medium because that medium can better inform theviewer/user. Future research should combine this information with the result of longinterviews with television journalists, as well as with focus group studies.38Feedback February 2003 (Vol. 44, No. 1)BEA—Educating tomorrow’s electronic media professionals 39