Behind the Scenes at the Local News: A Production Guidebook (and related videotape)

The video-text is also interesting and well related to the text (or vice-versa) but could be improved by remixing the audio signals in the opening live reportage, imprinting certain technical terms as they are mentioned in the audio portion of the tape (e.g., "chyron'), and reinforcing the names and functions of the personnel described (e.g., producer, director, engineer, anchor, and so on) by subtitling as they are mentioned. While the book and video-text provide a case history of a single station-WJZ, Baltimore-a time capsule, as it were, of a single moment in a radically changing social, economic, and communications landscape in the latter days of the twentieth century, the basic principles and problems involved are universal and continuing. More important, they place this information in the larger context of principles and policies under which this operation takes place, raising questions about the integrity and social responsibility of local television news and, in our world information society, making the text and tape valuable resources for discussions about international television news as well.