In contrast, government and political stories are often visually boring. They are bloodless. In addition, they may not be important for everyone across the region. What San Jose s city council decides rarely affects Walnut Creek residents. TV is different than print These characteristics present two problems for television.
Every viewer gets the same story.
Second, unlike newspapers readers, television viewers can t readily bypass unwanted stories to get to those they most want to see. The viewer has to wait for such stories to pass, or penalize the station by clicking to a competitor. Neither of these technological features block television from doing strong government and political reporting, however. In fact, Channel 2 watches what government does or ought to be doing about as well as any newspaper except the Chronicle . TV reporters can choose issues that affect more than one city or county.