Radio Content Analysis

But it was local radio’s approach to reporting on those topics that stood out most of all. Rarely could the news content offered be described as thorough, complete or even well rounded. Little of it involved reporters going out to the scene and interviewing people or serving as the public’s eyes and ears. Indeed, the local radio news we found on May 11 was not about reporting in a traditional sense at all.

Sourcing of information, for instance, was often absent. A full third of the coverage of the major news items across the stations studied did not contain any sourcing. Another 37% contained only one source other than the host.

Sourcing in Local Media

That compared poorly to the other sources of local news we monitored on May 11, from local TV, to weekly papers, to local or suburban daily papers. All of those rivals were significantly higher in the amount of sourcing available to audiences. Suburban dailies included four or more sources in 18% of their stories, and local TV included four or more in 13%. Local radio listeners must put a good deal of trust in the local on-air voices.

When it came to how much context stories provided, local radio scored the lowest of any English-language media studied. On our index of 10 elements that major stories might contain that would explain how a story mattered, 88% contained one or none — and that includes the long, far-ranging talk-radio discussions.7 Again, that was the lowest score of any media studied.