Rundown Rationale, 4:00 p.m. Newscast 10/21/10

Oct. 21, 2010

Christina Jones (NCC News)

4:00 P.M.

I began the show with Phil’s “Pepper Spray” recorded wrap. This story features all NITPIC rational. For instance this story is completely newsworthy and super local. Local people want to know about a story where a woman attacks an officer with pepper spray. I also found it completely intriguing as a newscast opener. My next story was another crime story, a reader on a miscellaneous/random shooting in the area. This news story still maintained super local content and was relevant and newsworthy. I thought it flowed well because as producer it seemed reasonable to place both crime stories back-to-back.

My next story was about a missing crewmember of a Canadian freighter. I thought this story segued nicely from the previous stories on crime. For stories like this one, it is necessary to place the story near the top. People want to know about a local missing man and if it has relevancy to them and their neighborhood. I thought this story fit well because it’s a top story and probably wouldn’t smoothly fit in anywhere else.

My next story was on an NBA shoe that had been banned in professional sports. I thought this was a great story to place here, being that it pertains to Syracuse University basketball players who may be banned from wearing the product. Then, I went on to a Superintendant at a local school that no longer wanted to work there for irreconcilable reasons. I placed it here because the previous story was local to Syracuse University and this story is local to schools in Syracuse.

Then, I went on to national stories. I had a story on the NY governor’s race, and Cuomo’s plan to make inner city neighborhoods safer while improving education and job opportunities. I thought this fit well here because the previous story had to do with a group of parents suing a local school district and the superintendant leaving the school. Both stories are about education. Then, I moved on to the Obama’s story on the taking responsibility for distortions about the health care reform. This story flowed well because the previous story was about politics and important, newsworthy national news as well. The final story for the A-Block was another political story on the Obama Administration.

For the kicker, I wrote the story on Four Loko because it pertained to students at college campuses, which is a trending topic right now.