Wave 3 News shows a pattern of reporting on neighborhood shooting and not getting opinions from both sides. It is very important that reporters get the opinions of people other than the just the ones who were involved or living in that neighborhood. By not doing this they are violating the principle of verification, which states that a journalist not only needs to have sources of their information, they need to report on both sides of the story.
In a story Wave News reported about a man who shot a teen burglar in the arm, the are are a few quotes from people in the neighborhood, including the man who shot the boys and a couple from the police explaining what happened. There wasn't any quotes from people who lived outside of the neighborhood. Those people have opinions too! They should be included. I have also noticed this problem in other stories reported by Wave News, and I see it on their T.V. a lot.
I'm also questioning the newsworthiness of this story and other neighborhood shooting type stories they report on. The only people that really concerns is the people who live in that neighborhood, or surrounding neighborhoods, and chances are those people already know. So why are they telling us about it? It's entertaining of course, but it is not real news!
However if one neighborhood shooting was part of a pattern of nieghborhood shooting and the shooter has yet to be caught, it would be newsworthy because it is warning people that there's possible danger in their neighborhoods.
I think Wave 3 News needs to rethink what newsworthiness is and focus more on what's really important.
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