What's the latest attempt to make local nightly news relevant and engaging? Apparently, eliciting real-time feedback from viewers during newscasts.
It's not a new concept, but a San Francisco Chronicle article describes how San Jose-based NBC11 happens to be taking a fairly unique approach to it this month with anchor-driven online chats.
The aim? To improve overall interaction with the news program's audience.
During the on-air broadcasts, news anchor Jessica Aguirre both calls for and make reference to this online chatter. Questions are posed after individual stories (Should we get out of Iraq?), snippets of chats and emails are read online, and audiences are encouraged to "get in there" (there, being the channel's online chat room).
My favorite quote for the story comes from Judy Muller, an associate professor of journalism at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and a former correspondent at ABC and CBS. "Whether this turns out to be more of a gimmick or not depends on the quality of the interaction they get with viewers, the questions they hear," she told the Chronicle.
And what do these viewers what to know?
"Is (technology reporter) Scott Budman nice?" and "why was [there] an NBC11 truck outside the Santa Clara County jail?"
Photo: Jessica Aguirre
