Designated Market Areas Research Articles

Diversity in Broadcast Television: An Empirical Study of Local News

The relation between the structure of a market and the diversity of its product offering has been extensively explored by theorists. We develop 2 measures of diversity and explore the content of local news for 60 stations and 20 designated market areas (DMAs) in the United States. Using a relative station-level diversity metric, ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates imply that relative diversity of local news content decreases as market concentration increases. This result is not, however, robust to an instrumental variables specification. Using a total market diversity metric, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (Hirshman, 1964) is significant in OLS and robust to instrumental variable estimation. Because the total market diversity metric is arguablysuperior to the incremental metric as a measure of overall diversity, this result is useful-it suggests that the total diversity of local news content within a DMA is sensitive to the level of concentration.

A survey of television meteorologists about their sources for and understanding of pollen counts.

Pollen counts are widely used by television stations in news programming but little is known about the sources for and quality of this information. The purpose of this investigation was to survey television meteorologists about their sources for pollen counts and to assess their general understanding of these data. Sixty-seven meteorologists employed by television stations in the nation's 20 largest Designated Market Areas (DMAs) were contacted by telephone. A brief survey was administered verbally and their responses were recorded. Thirty-seven meteorologists indicated that their station used pollen counts in news programming. Most were aware of their station's source for this information and reported that viewers contacted them about the pollen count. Few meteorologists, however, knew the type of instrument that was used to obtain pollen samples they aired and only 10 selected the correct definition of a pollen count from a list of three choices. Pollen counts are an important element in television news programming that are poorly understood by the meteorologists who present them to the public. Allergists are encouraged to better educate the personnel at stations to which they supply pollen counts.

Pollen counts in the television media.

Allergists routinely supply pollen counts to television stations to assist allergy sufferers and to publicize their medical practices. This investigation examined how widely pollen counts are used in television news programming. The authors telephoned the news director or a meteorologist at 121 broadcast television stations in the nation's 30 largest Designated Market Areas (DMAs). They were asked if pollen counts were included or would be included in news programming during the 1995 pollen season. At least one television station in 28 DMAs included pollen counts in news programming. All five stations in the Washington, DC, DMA aired pollen counts; however, no stations in the Pittsburgh or Milwaukee DMAs carried pollen information. Approximately 49 million television households have access to pollen counts through a broadcast television station. Because these data appear important to television stations and to the public, the authors outline four measures to assure the reliability and meaningfulness of pollen information.