CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION ALERT, July 19, 2004
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org

The statement of principles for Chicago Media Action includes among its activities to "monitor and analyze content and ownership of media outlets in the Chicago area",
and to "publicize the results of our analyses".  Chicago Media Action is pleased to announce the first of its media content analyses -- one nearly a year in the making.

The analysis is a study of Chicago Tonight, the flagship hour-long TV program of WTTW Channel 11, Chicago's main PBS affiliate.  To our knowledge, this study is the most
in-depth analysis of WTTW or of Chicago Tonight which has ever been conducted -- thirty episodes across three months involving more than 400 show guests.  

Among the study's findings:

* The majority of stories are not news at all, with sports and entertainment making up over 55% of all stories covered.  The guests are also overwhelmingly white, male,
representatives from government or corporations or corporate media.

* Only whites were chosen to speak on business and economic topics, while whites were commentators on politics and elections more than 90% of the time.

* Guests who articulated perspectives that were outside the major political and economic establishment were all but absent: public interest representatives, citizen
activists, and organized labor comprised just 3.1% of all guests _combined_. 

You can download the study, its appendix, and its executive summary in PDF format via these links:

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/pdffiles/CMA_WTTW.pdf

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/pdffiles/CMA_Appendix.pdf

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/pdffiles/CMA_WTTW_ExecSummary.pdf

The press release announcing the study is available here:

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=213

With the release of this study and its implications, we encourage you to take a moment now to fax Sandra Guthman, the head of the WTTW Board of Directors.  We have made
it easy for you to send a fax without a fax machine -- just visit this webpage and follow the directions:

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=rapid_response

Chicago Media Action has been coordinating publicity of this development with a number of journalists.  We hope this announcement will make a big splash in the Chicago
area and with concerned citizens across the United States, and can further efforts in media democracy.  Be sure to visit the CMA website for the latest developments:

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org

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