[Seattle-editorial] Volunteers Needed for Local TV News Analysis Project

[Heather Gorgura]

TV NEWS ANALYSIS PROJECT--TRAINING SESSION

The Seattle IMC, in collaboration with other media activists, is conducting
a content analysis of local television news. This project will examine
whether Seattle's local stations serve the interests of our diverse
community, and will analyze the coverage of the buildup and protests of the
current war on Iraq.

Video tapes of local news broadcasts were made during the two weeks from
February 10th through February 21st. The next phase of the project is
watching the newscasts and coding them for analysis. We will be looking for
a number of characteristics in the newscasts, such as the depiction of
racial groups, the level of coverage of substantive local issues versus
sensational crime and disaster stories, and the voices and messages heard on
the then-pending war on Iraq.

The more volunteers we have for the coding process of this project, the more
comprehensive and in-depth in can be! If you'd like to participate, please
come to this one-time training session to get the key info and materials.
Because the meeting will involve ensuring that all project volunteers agree
on how to apply the codes to ensure consistency, it is critical that
everyone who will be working on the project attend this meeting. However,
coming to the meeting does not oblige you to participate further. Come see
what it will involve, then volunteer to do as much or as little as you want!
Volunteers who decide to participate will sign up to code two or more hours
of news footage, and will be given a VHS tape to take home for coding
(arrangements to do the coding in the IMC space, for those who don't have a
TV and VCR at home, can be made).

The training session will be held:

Sunday May 4th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
at
Seattle IMC
on 3rd downtown (see http://www.seattle.indymedia.org for directions)

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Heather Gorgura
gorgura02 at earthlink.net