12-17-2009 CONTRASTING TV vs. NEWSPAPER NEWS CYCLE KMBC veteran newsman/anchor Kris Ketz sat down for a fascinating pod cast interview with blogger Heycameraman.net (who shoots video at the station) for a fascinating interview about how technology is being used to report news. In the first of two parts Ketz talks about how he uses Twitter for information. In fact, he related the story about how he was monitoring TV stations in Seattle for updates on the status of a man being hunted for killing four policemen. Ketz noted that he was following a pair of trusted sources in Seattle and when they reported via Twitter that the cop killer had been shot and killed he knew the story was true and reported it. He said the Associated Press filed the story fully 11 minutes later. In Part II he noted how a TV station's Web site used to be designed to simply drive viewers to the actual TV newscast. Now, he said, the Web in many instances, is a final destination for news. Ketz noted he recently came upon a high-speed police chase, pulled over and took photos with his Blackberry phone. Within minutes his photos were used as a slide show on the KMBC site. One cannot help but contrast Ketz's comments with a recent article by the Kansas City Star's Readers' Representative Derek Donovan, who tried to explain why one section of the Star was reporting that two of Tiger Woods' sponsors were reportedly staying with him while another section of the newspaper was reporting almost the opposite. Donovan noted that some sections of the Star such as the FYI section (with the incorrect news) are printed a full day ahead of the regular newspaper, which means the information can be 24 hours old compared to the regular newspaper. He then noted a clarification will be in the next day's paper---24 hours later. When one compares Ketz's interview where TV looks on 11 minutes as an eternity, it dramatically points out why newspapers often are seen by many as dinosaurs in delivering a news product in the fast-moving world of today.
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