My Week with WGN TV News
This week I analyzed Chicago’s local news WGN TV. WGN branches out not only on local news but other news such as national, international, sports, entertainment, weather, and traffic. As I explored the website and their social media apps that they use as a platform to distribute news. I found out, not only very interesting news but a pattern of different coverage from each platform and how their website is connected to all of our daily usage on our social media apps.
The importance of news has to come not just from watching it on TV but from the news platforms website. I think WGN has done a wonderful job with their website and their mobile app. This is what I observed in my week with WGN. On the top of their website they have a live stream where they tell you at a certain time when they are going on air. Next to it is the WGN TV schedule and that as well lets you know when the local news will air as well.
I found that a perfect way to inform people so we can view the latest news. I know it helped me on updating me with the Kavanaugh trial. Everytime the news went live on the website and mobile app they would also go live on Facebook too. Social media has given a great way to connect the both platforms like Facebook and their website. It was interesting to see them to be able to go live at the same time. I realized there was over 200,000 viewers when watching the Kavanaugh trial on WGN’s Facebook live stream. I never thought that they would have that many viewers since this story was national and was streaming on almost every news program. I can’t imagine how many viewers were watching it on their TV Channel or website.
Just below the schedule and the live news it had a bar of specific news topics or updates like weather and traffic that people are always interested in. The Chicago sports are a big coverage on WGN. Games make the front page and most of the time. From my observation it was mostly baseball like the Chicago Cubs and White Sox. What I used to my advantage on the mobile app was catching up on the tabs of the morning news which airs from 4:00 in the morning to 10:00 AM and the midday news which is from 12:00 pm to about 2:00 pm. I realized as I was getting caught up on the news the further I scrolled down it lets you catch up on the news from the past four days before they start updating it the next day which is convenient and those stories are always on their Facebook and Twitter page.
WGN is known for their famous faces to name a few. In the morning news, entertainment reporter Dean Richards, has his own segments that the audience can check out. Pat Tomasulo’s Man of the people segments and video is highly viewed. For most people Weather is the number one reason why people tune in for the news. WGN’s beloved Tom Skilling is “everyone’s favorite weatherman” and is on the front page in the early morning where they have an ask Tom link. With following the WGN Facebook,Twitter, and Instagram page. Their fame grows their own Social Media pages that people follow because they have been there for a long time and our loved by many. For example, with social media It’s easy for them to target their audience which the demographic from my observation is middle aged men and women from the Facebook comments by viewing their profile pictures. Rarely you would see younger kids from my age group (18–25.) It doesn’t come to a surprise since the older you the more likely you are going to pay attention to the news while the younger adults seem to not interact as much I want them to do.
My personal favorite feature was at the bottom of the page because that’s where they link all of their social media pages like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. My observations for their social media outlets is as I mentioned before about when they go live on their website they also go live on Facebook. Now, I noticed a pattern that every two hours they post the latest news stories on Facebook and Twitter. They are all the same articles, news packages, and reports as you scroll through their Twitter and Facebook page. If it was breaking news like the Kavanaugh trial the news was every 10–30 minutes. I’m a heavy Facebook user and I prefer getting the news through there because I can read more of people’s comments on Facebook then Twitter and I see a bigger interaction.
As for Instagram, they post a lot of pictures, small recaps of the news, and video promos for their entertainment segments. I see more Chicago sports updates like winners posts and birthday shout outs to celebrities.
In conclusion, I was very satisfied with how WGN distributes our news. I think what they did with their social media is the perfect because you got a taste of everything local (Chicago and Chicago suburbs), national, international, politics, sports, entertainment news, and weather/traffic reports. It was very interesting to see they hourly news distributed as well as how the website’s relationship with social media. It’s wonderful, accurate, and there is always a story that catches my attention hourly.
