Wednesday, August 25

Do you know your DMA's?

Capstone Bloggers! Do you know your DMAs?

Neilsen Media Research breaks the 210 television markets in the country into Designated Market Areas (DMAs) based on population. The new DMA list is out and it looks like San Francisco is no longer a top five market. Boston (which now includes the Manchester, New Hampshire, TV audience-- served by former Imes station WMUR) edged out Frisco which dropped to #6.

The new list shows Pittsburgh holding at DMA #22 (when I worked at WPXI it was at at 18). Youngstown seems to have slipped down a notch to 102. Last year it was listed at 101. A lot of people in the business mesaure their career goals/success and pay scale/benefits based on the DMAs. DMAs are often seen as the career ladder you climb in the local TV scene.


Arbitron manages the same kind of market ranking system for radio stations, but instead of DMA's you refer to ADIs (Area of Dominant Influence). I want to stress to my students how important it is to understand these industry terms and not to mix them up in conversation. Such a snafu reflects poorly on your comprehension of how the business works. Using DMA and ADI correctly promotes yourself to potential employers as being industry savvy.

So, when you start developing short and long term career goal statements, make sure you build in something about what DMA or ADI you aspire to break into as an entry level employee out of college and what DMA or ADI you'd like to reach in the next 5-10 years.

While the lists are widely discussed via online resources, they are proprietory information owned by those two companies. However, publications such as the Broadcast Yearbook are available-- Westminster's McGill Library maintains the Broadcast Yearbooks as a reference resource.

Tuesday, August 24

Back 2 School, TCL, PCN, & the Sinclair Kool-Aid

It was back to class this week for me...a doctoral seminar in rhetoric and philsophy of journalism at Duquesne University. That's where I'll be late Monday afternoons and early evenings for the next 15 weeks. Duquense will have a two-week head start on Westminster and Pitt when it comes to the semester. I'm attempting to attain approval to transfer the credit from this seminar to my program at Pitt in the School of Ed's English/Communications program.

My daughter Tess starts first grade this week. Meanwhile Emma will begin her school on August 30, the same day we begin classes at Westminster.

On Friday we welcome some 380 new students to Westminster with the opening convocation. And Dr. Barner has asked that we provide local newscasts on the radio on weekday mornings at 7, 8 and 9. We will comply. The staffing and production of those newscasts will be the duty of the BC 120-B (News) practicum this semester.


The first County Line television broadcast is set for September 16th.


The live telecast on WCN of the Lawrence County Band Festival is slated for Wednesday, September 15.


Meanwhile, Chuck Chirozzi has informed me that the
Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) is picking up one of our Friday night high school football games-- Sharon vs. Hickory (in Hermitage) which will air live on WCN on Friday, September 10 with PCN running it on Saturday, September 11 at 9 PM.

The Post-Gazette featured a column last week describing WPGH-TV's newly appointed news manager as having
"clearly tasted of the Sinclair Kool-Aid and doesn't mind the flavor."

The paper's interview with Jeff Alan has him championing Sinclair's News Central approach to outsourcing local news and weather to corporate headquarters outside of Baltimore where it gets a fresh coat of the conservative paint like the kind Fox News likes to use. What's ironic is the fact that here's a guy supporting this trend to outsource local news and blatently brand it with the corporation's conservative politics and agenda but it conflicts with the message of responsibie journalism which is also the title of Alan's book about journalism ethics book which is marketed as a resource for college students learning how to become credible journalists.

Meanwhile the ratings for Fox 53's 10 o'clock news are down. Could it mean the audience has also tasted the Sinclair Kool-Aid and isn't coming back for more?


Thursday, August 19

Capstone Blogger Debuts a New Look


Julie S. has launched her blog. She has a before and after look of her new hairstyle-- you'll have to go to her blog to check out the "after" photo. Why is this relevant to broadcast communications? Julie wants to work in television news and how you look does come into play.

Here's a list of all the capstone students with blogs now online.



Wednesday, August 18

NOW AVAILABLE - THE BC 601 SYLLABUS

You can now access the BC 601 syllabus through this link or via the Capstone Weblog main page. We meet officially for the first day of class on September 2. However, I strongly encouraged capstone students to check it out as soon as possible so you can refine your senior project ideas.

The
Checklist for Success page is also up and available. Students should review it as well. Be prepared to craft career goal statements for their blogs. Career goals should drive the senior projects.

Students who have yet to signed up and established a personal weblog page on
Blogger.com should also do so before we have our first class meeting.

Some students have obviously mastered the blog with photos and links.
Pat's blog page looks good (which is not a requirement-- but it's nice) and he's really addressing the points required for the blog entries. Amy's recent entry revealed a lot about what she's up to these days.

Please feel free to post comments on blog entries, but I insist you keep it on topic and productive. We are inviting outside professionals to view the weblogs and you want to showcase yourself here.

If you have any questions about the syllabus, please contact me as soon as possible.