May 7, 1997 A preliminary survey of local news programs in eight television markets around the country shows that Eugene's stations--KEZI, KMTR and KVAL--spend the most time on reporting government and political news. "Our stations, as well as those in the other smaller markets we surveyed in Austin, Texas, and Syracuse, N.Y., stack up pretty well on this point," says Jim Upshaw, an award-winning television reporter before joining the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications faculty in 1992. "On the other hand and perhaps not surprisingly, the bigger markets--Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Indianapolis--tend to emphasize crime reporting." The survey, conducted by Upshaw and former news reporters, producers and executives at seven other universities during a four-month period, represents the first attempt to sample news content of television newscasts on a national scale. Upshaw admits that more sampling than the "snapshot" from four randomly selected newscasts in November, January, February and April is needed. Nevertheless, he says the trends revealed in the preliminary results released today (May 7) are pretty clear. "In undertaking this survey, we aim to assemble hard evidence and to begin to serve as a consistent source for feedback to audiences and to local news broadcasters about the quality and kind of journalistic effort being delivered." Eugene stations led all markets surveyed with an average of 29 percent of news time devoted to government and politics. In the proportion of time covering arts and leisure, Eugene, at an average of 13 percent, was second only to New York, which came in at 17 percent. Eugene stations also were on par with all the surveyed markets in devoting only about one percent of newscast time to coverage of education at all levels. SOURCE: Jim Upshaw, KEZI Distinguished Professor of Broadcast Journalism, UO School of Journalism and Communication, (541) 346-3745; e-mail, jupshaw@oregon.uoregon.edu -30- #T-2260/Daybook