HD - High Definition. Usually synonymous with television or video, HD is one of the new digital broadcast standards that will be fully implemented by February 17, 2009. But one of our local news stations has taken HD to a new level…and I’m not sure what to think of it.
Take the time to know me and you’ll soon find out I can be a bit critical of the local new stations in this market. West Michigan is the 38th largest television market in the United States and I swear we have some of the cheesiest newscasting in the country. We have reporters and anchors that get so involved with a story that it’s as if they have a personal stake in the outcome. It’s rare, but it happens. And when it does happen, it’s painfully obvious. I recall when Grand Rapids wanted to sell some city owned property near the water treatment facility on Monroe Ave. News broke that a mystery investor had plans for that site - no one knew what it was but speculation involved everything from a major record label moving to Grand Rapids to a large internet company like Yahoo or Google setting up shop with a new research campus. In the end the developer’s name was Duane Faust - he really had nothing to do with Interscope Records, nor did he have much in store for what had been coined the Grand Plan. Throughout all the speculation one of our local news anchors really took the story to heart - as if it would make his/her career to break this story. The way the mystery headlined each 6pm and 11pm news broadcast started to get - well - funny. It all culminated with this particular anchor breaking the news that he/she discovered who the mystery investor was - and they had a recorded interview to prove it. They promoed that for two nights before the actual interview ran. For three nights their news broadcast showed parts of that interview - watching the anchor doing this interview was hilarious. He/She was so serious - intently staring at the phone eyes as wide as saucers while the camera gave a ground level perspective - focusing up towards the desk where the anchor sat doing the interview. It was poor news reporting at it’s finest because the investor/developer had a history of big dreams with no capitol to back his plans. Had the anchor done a little investigation on the background of Duane Faust that would have become crystal clear quickly.
So I really don’t hold local news (at least in this market) to the highest regard. I’ll concede that they provide a service and generally they do that service fairly well. But it’s those times that they have overblown a news story - they have overblown it so incredibly well that they come across as desperate to report the news. So when I saw on one of the local station’s websites that they offer news stories to be read in HD, I wasn’t surprised. I’ve never been a big fan of WZZM’s website anyway - it’s far too cluttered with very poor navigation. During one of my master’s classes at MSU we used this website (and many others) to illustrate poor web design generally found in medium to small news markets websites. I’ll say it’s gotten a bit better recently - their navigation sidebar used to be twice as long as it is now and they’ve reduced their news stories to one center column rather than two staggered columns. But all that clutter on the right center column still detracts from a news website. And if I disable Adblock Plus on my Firefox browser I have a whole new column of ads on the far right that really make the site feel cluttered.
beyond the cluttered website, browse to any story and you’ll see an option to Read this Article in HD. Are they kidding? Large white font on a black background. That’s High Definition? Yes, white on black offers better contrast. But that doesn’t make it High Definition. Actually, some websites have begun to offer something similar to this for people with low vision difficulties. But it seems WZZM - rather than focus on that particular need - would rather think themselves to be something special:
Online HD? Okay, so all we did was expand the font and change the background color, how can we call this HD - Because we thought of it first
And you have to admit, the large font in white on black has a higher definition. -Taken from a ‘HD’ story on the WZZM website.
Personally I’d rather see their web gurus focus on good design and good navigation over higher contrast (which is different from higher definition). And as someone who’s been involved in the optical trade as a certified optician for over 16 years, I’m almost offended that they are almost making fun of a serious and debilitating vision problem. I say almost because I know they are not making fun of anyone that suffers from low vision - but why not offer the link as a higher contrast option for those readers who need that help? That’s something they could promote as community service.
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