Local television news anchors' public appearances

Top local anchors (50.4%) were surveyed about community appearances. They personally schedule and make appearances regularly and see them as beneficial to causes, ratings, and their careers and communities; they paradoxically realize appearances take time from producing a quality broadcast. Results illustrate Bantzs (1985) theory of normalization of conflicts among journalistic, business, and entertainment norms, respondents agreed across most demographics, but exceptions support Berkowitzs (1993) scholarship on news-worker socialization. Most reported making appearances that are covered as news. Younger and small-market anchors were more likely to link public appearances to ratings; older anchors were more likely to equate appearances with community service.