Local TV and Radio News Survey 2022

/

Takeaways from The Radio Television Digital News Association’s annual survey of local TV and radio:

Programming

  • A new record of 1,116 TV stations aired local news—up 18 from last year’s all-time high.

Budgets

  • Just 16.3% of TV stations report budget increases while 29.3% report experiencing budget cuts.

  • Among TV news directors who do know their department’s profitability, 75.9% report a profit.

  • The percentage of radio news managers reporting their budgets decreased doubled to 18.2% over the previous year.

Salaries

  • Despite pandemic-related pay cuts, local television news salaries, on average, increased by 3.5%, or 2.1% after accounting for inflation.

  • TV salaries in markets 101-150 faired the best, with salaries for most positions increasing while in the top 25 markets, salaries for most positions fell.

  • Average and median starting TV news salaries both rose during 2021 to the highest staring salaries in the survey’s history.

Staffing

  • Full-time newsroom staffing fell 6.3% in 2021.

  • Digital staffing, on average, was up slightly, along with the roles of photographer, producer, editor and social media producer/editor.

  • Three times as many commercial radio news departments cut staff as added. Public radio stations, on the other hand, were four times more likely than commercial stations to grow.

Solo Journalists

  • The average newsroom has fewer solo journalists than last year while smaller markets overwhelmingly rely on MMJs, and mid-markets increasingly do, but few stations large market stations send reporters out alone.

  • MMJs and producers remain most in demand, representing about three-quarters of new TV news hires.

Innovations

  • More local TV newsrooms report producing virtual town halls, specials and longer-form or digital-exclusive content.

Social Media

  • Facebook is the most popular social media platform for local TV and radio news, with 94% of radio newsrooms and 100% of TV newsrooms reporting they used it.

  • Instagram is used by nearly every TV station and a third of radio newsrooms.

  • Twitter use among local news has been declining for several years, with most TV newsrooms using the platform, but less frequently.

Podcasts

  • The typical station, measured by median, has no podcasts and the average per station is less than one half.

  • The typical radio news department reporting zero podcasts.

Danger

  • 1 in 5 television news directors reported attacks on employees.

  • More than half of attacks occurred during coverage of civil unrest, protests, marches/rallies or riots

The Full Report

7 Free Webinars taking place in the next week: Disinformation, Data stories, Data tools, Faith in Journalism, Free Speech, Title IX, & Racism in Health Care

/

Thu., June 23 - The Path Forward on Disinformation

What: With the ability to spread online like wildfire, disinformation can have a corrosive impact on civil society. This discussion will cover online disinformation, what the US government should be doing about it and how tech companies continue to assess their role in the fight against it.

Who: Brad Smith, President & Vice Chair, Microsoft

When: 9 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Washington Post

More info

 

Thu., June 23 – Title IX: 50 Years Later

What: Reflections on the transformational impact of Title IX and the challenges that remain 50 years later. 

Who: Catherine Lhamon, U.S. Department of Education assistant secretary for civil rights, and athletes Briana Scurry and Jasmyne Spencer

When: 11 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Women’s Law Center

More info

 

Thu., June 23 - Uncover the Story in Your Data: Translate Insights Into Compelling Content

What: Actionable tips for mastering data-led storytelling and compelling use cases. You’ll find out:  The difference between data points, observations and insights; How to derive insights from data points; Tips for utilizing insights to drive your content strategy and craft a compelling story.

Who: Nativo’s Associate Director, Content Strategy & Insights Erin Tye

When: 1 pm Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: Internet marketing service company Nativo and AdWeek Magazine

More info

 

Thur., June 23 - Data journalism tools for your newsroom and classroom

What: How to scrape data from web pages and PDFs and into a spreadsheet format. You also will learn how to visualize the data using the free Flourish.studio tool.  Participants will get links to the tools, exercises, examples and data to practice with.

Who: Mike Reilley of Penny Press Digital, LLC

When: 1 pm Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: West Virginia Press Association

More info

 

Fri., June 24 - Faith in Journalism: How news organizations can build trust with religious Americans

What: Topics include how journalists of faith navigate challenges from inside their newsrooms and from inside their faith communities; Whose faith is centered in coverage and whose is marginalized, mischaracterized, or misunderstood; Which best practices can help extend our community’s understanding of itself.

Who: Moderated by Julie Moos, the Institute’s Executive Director, Panelists include:

Dawn Araujo-Hawkins, vice president at Religion News Association

Alison Bethel, vice president of corps excellence at Report for America

Sarah Breger, editor at Moment Magazine

McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic

Aysha Khan, journalist and Harvard Divinity School student

Holly Meyer, religion news editor at The Associated Press

Bill Mitchell, publisher, CEO, and president at the National Catholic Reporter

Paul O’Donnell, editor-in-chief at Religion News Service

When: 11:30 am, Eastern

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: National Press Club Journalism Institute

More info & Registration

 

Tues., June 28 - Telling the story of racism in American health care

What: We’ll discuss strategies and examples for telling stories about inequities, disparities and racism in health care systems. We'll take inspiration from the team behind STAT's “Color Code,” a series exploring medical mistrust in communities of color across the country.

Who: Journalist Nicholas St. Fleur, host of Color Code and the show’s multimedia producer, Theresa Gaffney

When: 10 am Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsor: USC Center for Health Journalism

More info

 

Thu., June 30 - Democracy dialogue: Free speech, hate speech, how much can we take? 

What: In an age where hate has gone viral and virtual forums inspire mass killings, can the First Amendment still be viewed in the benign light of the past? How can we manage the unintended consequences of free speech? Is speech an issue society must readdress? Given the politics of the moment and ever-expanding role of the internet, what is the principled position when it comes to speech?  This panel will offer a searching and provocative exploration of where the debate over free speech debate stands today, and where it should be going.

Who: Cathy Buerger, Director of Research, Dangerous Speech Project

Ben Holden, Professor of Journalism, with research and teaching emphasis on the First Amendment, Northwestern University

Martin Garbus, renowned constitutional lawyer whose clients have ranged from Lenny Bruce and Andrei Sakharov to the Public Broadcasting System and Great Britain’s Channel 4

Emerson Sykes, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project

When: 1 pm Pacific

Where: Zoom

Cost: Free

Sponsors: The Renewing American Democracy project, USC Annenberg's Center for Communications Leadership and Policy, Long Island University, and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism   

More info

Media Growth Predictions

/

Here are some takeaways from the annual PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Global Entertainment & Media report:

  • U.S. digital newspaper ad revenue expected to surpass print by 2026.

  • Online TV’s ad growth (10%) will come at the expense of terrestrial TV’s ad growth, which will decrease from 66.6% in 2021 to 63.1% in 2026. 

  • Print still dominates the book market, accounting for 77.4% of total revenue in 2021, with electronic books contributing 22.6%. 

  • Virtual reality continues to be the fastest-growing segment of media, albeit from a relatively small base.

  • Global internet advertising revenue will expand at an impressive 9.1% CAGR in the next five years to reach $723.6 billion in 2026, at which point 74% of internet ad revenue will be mobile.

  • Teenagers are now spending more time in immersive virtual worlds like Roblox and Fortnite than they are on TikTok. 

Read more here

Which of the 4 family types do you come from?

/

There are basically four family types that we all come from.

1 - The Traditional Family System

The old-fashioned family has a myth that “father knows best.” This family is under the control of only one member.

2 - Enmeshed Family System

The frightened family has a myth that it's “us against the world.” It is emotionally bound together and protective of itself.

3 - The Fighting Family System

The fighting family has a myth of “every man for himself.” Each member of this family is strongly individualistic, recognizing no other authority than his (or her) own.

4 - The Open Family System

The healthy family system theme is “all for one and one for all.” The open family system emphasizes the worth, dignity, and uniqueness of each individual, the importance of unconditional positive regard, and the value of positive reinforcement.

Tuesday Tech Tools: 28 Learning Sites (coding & professional development)

/

Academic Earth
More than 1,500 video lectures by professors from Harvard, Yale, broken down into single classes on topics like art, architecture, and astronomy. Free.

Code Cademy
Learn to code for free. Formal. Good reviews.

The Code Player
Learn to code through videos demonstrating actual typing of code to create items from scratch.

Colaboratory
An online code editor that exists right within Google Drive. Basically, its Google Docs for code. Write and execute code right in the browser. Only handles Python at the moment. Share files and have multiple people people edit them. Free.

Coursera
Learn to code through classes from accredited universities or develop yourself professionally. The courses are made up of lessons with multiple video lectures, along with readings, practice exercises, homework quizzes, and assignments. Most are free but have a cost if you want a certification. Limited help options.

Data Camp
Practice coding. See progress as you go. Free sign up.

Domestika
Mostly high quality online courses covering creative topics such as drawing, fine art, graphic design, arts and crafts, photography, etc. and some courses in business and design. No deadlines, learn at your own pace. Each course lasts from a couple of hours to 10+ hours and is divided into short lessons Certifications available. Most courses have a low fee ($10-$40) but some are free. Some courses are only available in Spanish with English subtitles.

FreeCodeCamp*
Founded by a schoolteacher turned programmer. Free, user-friendly hands-on online courses for beginners. Most courses run 300 hours. Positive reviews.

FurtureLearn
UK-based online learning platform. Earn a certificate with 3 or 4 classes (in 10 to 12 week blocks of learning). Mostly novice level content for job education. No phone apps and limited support. Some free tracks.

Google Code Playground
An advanced educational tool of Google’s Javascript APIs (application programming interfaces that simplify software implementing). Available for anyone to try out and tweak the code. Free but not for beginners.

Hands on Programming with R (free book)

How Cast
Free learning site divided into categories like environment, first aid, and parenting. Experts share their knowledge in videos that cover everything from surviving heart attacks to playing charades.

iTunes U
More than 350,000 free video lectures.

jQuery
Build coding projects to include in your portfolio, and collaborate with other members. A 4 question quiz matches you with the best course for you and your goals. Free 7 day trial if you enter a credit card number. $40 per month for unlimited courses.

Lynda Software Training*
Software training & tutorial video library. 

Kaggle Data Sets
A database of some 29k data sets for learning data science. There are more than a dozen free micro-courses for learning Python, machine learning, data viz, etc. Share/collaborate with others on the site.

Khan Academy
Tools for kids and adults in single, short lessons on a neon blackboard. More than 20,000 free videos. Free coding lessons with reputable content.

Learn Python the Hard Way
A book that introduces readers to Python.

MIT OpenCourseWare
For beginners. Textbook.

Mozilla Developer Network
Beginner friendly. Have to sign up to see. Positive reviews.

R for Data Science
Free Book. Good reviews for beginners.

Scratch
MIT-developed site tilted for children (but adults too) to learn coding basics focused on helping people create interactive stories, games, and animations. Free.

SoloLearn*
Free lessons on coding but with ads.

Stack Overflow
A popular programming problem-solving sites despite a number of negative reviews. Ask your coding questions as you learn or find chunks of code. Low as $5 a month.

StoryBench
Not hands on, more of a explanation of projects. Positive reviews.

TeamTreehouse
Tuturals on web design, coding, business, etc.  Students sign up for annual subscriptions.

Udacity
User-friendly online school focusing on job-related skills. Users very positive but expensive. $79 a month.

W3Schools Online Web Tutorials*
Learn HTML, CSS, etc. Easy-to-use. Navigate.

A dozen internship articles & sites for media & journalism students

/

Productivity struggles

/

E.B. White once wrote: “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” But in my research, I’ve found that productive people don’t agonize about which desire to pursue. They go after both simultaneously, gravitating toward projects that are personally interesting and socially meaningful.

Often our productivity struggles are caused not by a lack of efficiency, but a lack of motivation. Productivity isn’t a virtue. It’s a means to an end. It’s only virtuous if the end is worthy. If productivity is your goal, you have to rely on willpower to push yourself to get a task done. If you pay attention to why you’re excited about the project and who will benefit from it, you’ll be naturally pulled into it by intrinsic motivation.

Adam Grant, writing in the New York Times

Words that have the Power to Change Minds

/

Researchers have discovered that certain words or phrases have the power to change the course of a conversation. Here are some dos and don’ts they discovered:

  • List options rather than recommending “best-interest” solutions.

  • Use “willing” —as in “Would you be willing to…” (and “I know it’s not your first choice but would you…”

  • Don’t use “just” (as in “Could I just” or “I just wanted to”) because it is a ‘permission’ word, an apology implying interrupting and people do not respond as well when a warm-up to a request is offered first.

  • Use “speak” instead of “talk” (such as “I’m here to talk.). “Talk” is a reminder of the negative cultural idioms associated with the term (such as “talk is cheap”).

  • Use “sort” (as in “Let’s sort it out”) instead of “help.” “Sort” seems more direct and active.  

  • Ask “Can I speak to you about this?” rather than “Can we talk?”

  • Avoid “How are you?” when it’s not your intention to discuss the topic. Better to get to the point.

  • Avoid “any” (as in “Anything else I can do for you?” because the question is too broad) and instead use “some” (as in “Is there something else I can do for you today?”).

  • Avoid “yes, but” and once you do hear the phrase repeated three or more times, pack it in. The conversation is going nowhere. Try “What’s needed here?” or “What do you need?”

  • Offer a bright “hello.”

Based on research from: 

Talk: The science of conversation, Elizabeth Stokoe  

Some vs Any, John Heritage and Jeffrey Robinson

Workstorming, Rob Kendall

Never Split the Difference, Chris Voss

Tuesday Tech Tools: 13 Ways to make GIFs

/

Animated GIFs in Photoshop
A tutorial for creating Animated GIFs in Photoshop.

EzGif.com
”Animated GIFs made easy.” Includes many images that could be turned into GIFs or use your own saved files. Adjust the speed, resize, etc.

Gickr*
Create animated GIFs. Free but a small watermark is placed in the corner.

Gif Me
App with control options such as speed, filters, adding text, stickers, etc.

GifSoup
Find animated GIFs.

Gifbin
Find and create animated GIFs.

Giphy
GIF search engine owned by Facebook.

Picasion
Create animated GIFs. Free but a watermark is placed in the corner.

RecordIT
Simple screen record and save for creating GIFs.

Screen to Gif
Select a portion of your screen and record anything that happens in that specific area.

TikTok video to GIF

Twitter iOS App
Using to create GIFs.

Video to GIF
This GIF-making app is tailored to iPhone users. Easily convert GIFs from videos in your iCloud library and add moving text. Free.

Wanna be creative? Get some sleep!

/

One of the most interesting discoveries of neuroscience of the last 20 years is that when you acquire memories, they’re stored in temporary, fragile form, like cement. When you pour it, initially it’s soft, but when it dries and hardens, it becomes strong and durable. Memories are like that. They become hardened through a process of consolidation, which happens largely during sleep.

Memory consolidation actually transforms the memory, as well. It brings out details, hidden relationships. That can be the stuff of creativity and insight.

That’s why there are so many stories of people waking up in the middle of the night with a new idea or solution to a problem. Like Paul McCartney. He was awakened one morning with this melody in his head. It was the song, “Yesterday.” It just appeared to him. Sleep supercharges creativity.

Brigid Schulte writing in The Washington Post

The boy with the bread sandwich

/

Norman Garmezy, a developmental psychologist and clinician at the University of Minnesota, met thousands of children in his four decades of research. But one boy in particular stuck with him. He was nine years old, with an alcoholic mother and an absent father. Each day, he would arrive at school with the exact same sandwich: two slices of bread with nothing in between. At home, there was no other food available, and no one to make any. Even so, Garmezy would later recall, the boy wanted to make sure that “no one would feel pity for him and no one would know the ineptitude of his mother.” Each day, without fail, he would walk in with a smile on his face and a “bread sandwich” tucked into his bag.

The boy with the bread sandwich was part of a special group of children. He belonged to a cohort of kids—the first of many—whom Garmezy would go on to identify as succeeding, even excelling, despite incredibly difficult circumstances. These were the children who exhibited a trait Garmezy would later identify as “resilience.”

If you are lucky enough to never experience any sort of adversity, we won’t know how resilient you are. It’s only when you’re faced with obstacles, stress, and other environmental threats that resilience, or the lack of it, emerges: Do you succumb or do you surmount?

Resilient children (have) what psychologists call an “internal locus of control”: they believed that they, and not their circumstances, affected their achievements. The resilient children saw themselves as the orchestrators of their own fates. In fact, on a scale that measured locus of control, they scored more than two standard deviations away from the standardization group. 

One of the central elements of resilience is perception: Do you conceptualize an event as traumatic, or as an opportunity to learn and grow?

Maria Konnikova writing in The New Yorker

Building on Sand

/

When questioned about their religious creed, people who circle the wagons are usually afraid that what they profess might not be true. Seldom (if ever?) will you run across a 100% false belief system. There are scattered nuggets of truth in each one.

There are people in every religious, political, and philosophical system who simply accept the group’s views at face value. They grew up in it, gave in to social pressure, and joined. Perhaps they are unwilling to come to terms with the fact they have been walking on the wrong road. Admitting that you’ve invested yourself in something that’s been a waste of your time is not easy. Going back and starting over again is not very appealing.

Ultimately, it’s a choice about maintaining a comfort level or pursuing truth. If you surround yourself only with things and people who reinforce your belief system, you don't have to worry about your worldview being knocked out from under you (although circumstances have a way of eventually doing it). The choice ultimately becomes denying reality or reassessing cherished ideas on which we’ve built our lives. 

Stephen Goforth

99 photography tools

/

Below are 22 tools I’ve had recommended. For the complete list of 99 photography tools click here.

Camera+
Photo app with lots of filters and strong HDR mode. Sets the standard when it comes to third party iPhone cameras.  $2.99.

Canva
Graphic design tools. Create social media graphics, headers, slides, flyers, photo collages, posters, and infographics using drag-and-drop. 60k templates. Clip-art library available or upload your own images. Share to social media from the app or download a jpg, PDF, etc. for posting. Free. $12 a month for more options.

Compressor
Compress image files less than 10 MB so they will download quicker. A slider allows you to compare the look of the original and the optimized version side by side. Free.

Creative Cloud Express
A single template-focused app (replacing Adobe Spark) that combines some of the best features from the Creative Cloud Suite for mobile and web. Quickly create everything from social media posts to promotional posters and videos with the easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Drag all sorts of elements into your composition, from text, icons, shapes, free photos and fonts, music and other design elements. Assets from Photoshop and Illustrator can be utilized. Convert videos to GIFs and documents to PDFs. Great for non-professionals with little video editing experience, but not if you’re a pro looking for a full-featured video editor. Free version, three-month trial or $9.99 a month ($99.99 a year) for more templates, photos and fonts. Included in many Creative Cloud subscriptions. More info on plans here.

Darkroom
Iphone app with filters (or create your own filters), a curves tool for RGB channels, and an infinite history remembers all your edits so undo is easy. Edit photos without having to import them. Link your account to your Instagram account for easy upload. Free. $3 upgrade for curves.

Filmic pro
Powerful app for videography and photography. Lots of bells and whistles such as in-app stabilization. Possibly too much for the average person. Video explanation here. $14.99.

FilterStorm
Advanced mobile photo editing that can be sent by email, FTP, Dropbox, SFTP or export into social media. $3.99.

Getty Images
The most prestigious and the highest quality stock photography agency, Getty also offers video, music, and multimedia elements. Some of its images can be expensive to use and known to be protective of its property.

Google Reverse Image Search
Drag and drop or upload an image into this search engine to find where images originated from. Video explains it here.

Hipstamatic
Fact-checking photo editor. Can pick films, lenses, and flashes before taking your photos. Set shutter speed, shoot multi-exposed photos. $2.99 for the app but HipstaPacks for up to $4.99.

Hyperlapse
Instagram’s timelapse video. No audio option.

Instagram
Photo and video sharing app owned by Facebook.

Mojo
A great easy-to-use app for making professional vertical social stories to go on Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and Snapchat. Templates and fonts. More info here. Free. Pro version $9.99 a month.

Moment
Cases, lens, batteries, lights, gimbals, etc. to enhance photos and videos taken with a phone.

Pexels
Vast and well-organized, it is one of the best free stock images and video sites. High-quality images under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Pixlr
Browser-based and mobile photo editing. Pixlr Express is an option for making small changes when Photoshop is overkill. Pixlr Editor and Pixlr Pro is a step up for professional use. Free for basic tools, $5/month Pixlr Pro.

ProCamera
A great iPhone app for capturing, editing, and sharing high quality photos. Control over focus, exposure, white balance, and lighting. Compose shots or shoot HD and SD video. Tools can clutter the screen. The website offers a user manual and video tutorials. $14.99.

Shorthand
A visual storytelling tool used by major news outlets that allows users to combine text, images, and video. See exactly how a story will look as it is built. See examples created by the BBC here and here. Free trial then pricing starts at $150 a month.

Shutterstock
Royalty-free stock photos. With reverse image search, you can use drag a photo or illustration into search in order to find other images with a similar look and feel.

Snapseed
Google's Snapseed is a powerful mobile photo tool. Both auto edit and editing controls. Lots of filters and effects including text for adding captions. Both IOS and Android. Tips for using it are here. Free.

Unfold
App for iOS or Android for creating vertical montages of videos and photos. 25 free templates, dozens more as in-app purchases. A product of SquareSpace. More info here.

VSCO
Great start-to-finish photo/video app. Easy to use filters and helpful tutorials. Manual controls like focus lock, exposure lock, and white balance. Edit images and share them on social media. IOS. Here is a tutorial. Free version or $19.99 a year for 170 presets.

For the complete list of 99 photography tools click here

Why are religious people happier?

/

There’s a lot of evidence that religious people, for example, are happier in a sense of life satisfaction and positive emotion in the moment. But is it the Christian who really believes in Jesus and reads the Bible? Or is it the Christian who goes to church, goes to the spaghetti suppers, donates to charity, participates in the volunteer stuff? Turns out, to the extent that you can disentangle those two, it seems to not be our beliefs but our actions that are driving the fact that religious people are happier. That’s critical because what it tells us is, if you can get yourself to do it — to meditate, to volunteer, to engage with social connection — you will be happier. It’s just much easier if you have a cultural apparatus around you. 

Yale cognitive scientist Laurie Santos, quoted in the New York Times