Unemployment Continues to Decrease and Frustrate Economists

In recent news, Katie Couric reports on unemployment concerns. The story begins by giving a brief overview of the situation at hand. Followed by this are some statistics narrated by a generic male voice regarding a drastic decline in the unemployment rate. To help enhance the story, and create a visual delivery for those unable to capture this intensity by just hearing the information, the statistics are projected on the television screen. This adds to the overall effect of the account given for it allows people a better way to comprehend the information by actually seeing the numbers themselves, and realizing how serious a decrease of six tenths of a point in the unemployment rate is versus if they were to hear it quickly mentioned by an anchor. The rest of the news forecast mainly consists of interviews and editorials, as well as a great number of sources either mentioned or displayed on the screen to back up all the information discussed.

            In the beginning of the news forecast, Katie Couric specifies that the government provided them with their opening statistics. It later displays the actual source, along with a visual account of the numbers involved in the unemployment rate issue. While the US Department of Labor seems to be providing most of the information on the story, individuals report a correspondingly large portion of the news. This includes but is not limited to: Anthony Mason the senior business correspondent, Mark Zandi, Catherine Morse the Samsung Austin Semi-conductor, as well as Lakshman Achuthan the manager for the Dir Economic Cycle Research Institute.

            The story was very informative, but rather dry. While unemployment is an important issue to address, I would have enjoyed watching a story more entertaining. As far as the delivery technique is concerned, the story was delivered in a very efficient way with some brief background information followed by general overviews, accompanied by specific details evenly spaced throughout the broadcast. Finally, the show contained creditable sources to back up the specific claims as well as a description of each interviewee specified on the screen.