Guess who's coming to dinner?

US: If you’re an “average American”, in other words, not a Washington politician or a broker on Wall Street, you could soon find unexpected guests in your home: a TV news crew.

America’s news programmes are increasingly turning to mainstream America, often referred to as “Main Street”, for stories of how the country’s citizens are dealing with the recession. The network NBC is sending its former star anchor Tom Brokaw on a cross-country highway tour in search of stories.

A project by rival network CBS called At the Kitchen Table presented a family of five that has been struggling to make ends meet since the father lost his job. In the US, the kitchen table is synonymous with family gatherings and discussions, and is often cited as the place where families discuss their economic worries.

"We feel there's a need to know what different people in different parts of the country are doing," says Jon Banner of ABC News.

Not surprisingly, a similar show by the network ABC is called The Kitchen Table, and newscasters will be sent to report on the day-to-day efforts of people such as a Texas cowboy-hat maker who’s having trouble keeping his small business going.

"We're doing it because we feel there's a need to know, as close as we can, what different people in different parts of the country are facing," Jon Banner, the programme's executive producer, told Reuters news service. Media experts such as Martin Kaplan at the University of Southern California say one reason news shows are trying to offer individual stories is to match the grass-roots community building available on the internet.