TV news consultant on female viewers: 'Self-centered, myopic, and terrified'

[Newsjock]

http://jimromenesko.com/2015/01/29/male-consultant-says-the-typical-local-tv-news-viewer-is-a-self-centered-terrified-woman/

In my Tuesday post about WSPA-TV’s cardboard cutout named “Michelle,” I wondered if TV news directors are being advised by consultants to put cardboard characters in their newsrooms to remind reporters and producers of the target audience. This email from a female TV journalist arrived last night:

To answer your question regarding whether media consultants nationwide are giving similar advice, WSPA’s “Michelle” is a copy of the “Female Switchable” that (a consultant) has been preaching to Raycom Media-owned stations around the country for more than two years. (A “switchable” is a viewer who hasn’t decided on a favorite newscast, and switches from one station to another.)

(He) describes her as a mother short on logic but long on social media obsession, terrified of her neighbors, needing constant updates on the weather and consumer trends, with the attention span of a fourth-grader and much less understanding of the greater world around her. She wants “lists,” wants to know how things “affect her.” She’s self-centered, myopic and terrified.

She is nothing like the women I know, and I’m glad you finally called television news out on this caricature. I’d really like to see the data that’s used to build that caricature, because as far as I can see, she’s the sexist mythology of overpaid consultants.

[pansypoo53219]

1. must be why i never EVER watch local news.