Television News 2004
Rundown Table of Contents

TV & Weather: Produce an Almanac

Breaking News: Covering Chlorine Gas Leak

TV & Health:
Heart Care Information With A Flair

DuPont Awards
Announced

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Criminal Secrets Revealed,
Prisoners Offer Their Advice

Interest is always high in reports that reveal tricks of the trade or "secrets."
Here's how a Miami station revealed the tricks of an unlikely group of experts.

Inmate insights is a ratings winner

Viewers were offered suggestions on how they could avoid becoming crime victims in reports by WFOR-TV, Miami.
The stories ran on Monday nights following CSI Miami, and were a factor in the news department's November ratings success.
"We felt that protecting yourself from crime appeals to everybody --- men and women, young and old, and people of all races. Monday night is our strongest night and we have the largest number of people watching. Therefore, it would have the largest number of people to appeal to," says Shannon High, Vice President, News.

The pieces ran at 5 and 11 p.m. and WFOR had a great book.
Of the English language stations, it was number one at noon 5, 5:30, 6 and 11. High attributes this series with helping to hold the large Monday night lead-in.
"Each rating book we are very thoughtful about what we do. We don't stunt. We go for the most important and most interesting stories we can find," she says.

Starting point: inmates surveyed

The project began with a survey of convicted criminals serving time.
Tentative questions were prepared. A police officer helped the news team refine the material. This was then reviewed by the station's lawyers.

A database of criminals was created, listing their crimes.
"It was a lot of work by the special projects team, which did a great job with it. We got back a number of surveys with phenomenal information," says High.

In the survey, they asked if the person would be willing to do an interview. They contacted the ones who said yes.

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See also:

Rape zones were identified Crime statistics were analyzed, and the places most prone to sexual attacks were identified by reporters at KHOU-TV, Houston.				Flawed sex offender registry has inaccurate data A crime prevention database is greatly weakened if it is not comprehensive. People should be able to see who is in their neighborhood. Many mistakes were discovered by investigators at WLS-TV, Chicago.
DNA testing: Justice on hold? Rapists remain running free if the evidence that might convict them is never checked. The story was broken by WRAL-TV, Raleigh.

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