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Content Analysis
What are Americans now getting from network news?
In recent years, five major trends have dominated the broadcast
news divisions: shrinking audience, intensifying budget constraints,
competition from 24-hour cable news, the fast growth and then
decline of prime time news magazines, and the increased influence
within news divisions of morning programs.
It seems logical to ask what impact they are having on what
viewers see. Have the nightly newscasts retreated from their
traditional role of resembling, in effect, the front-page
of the daily newspaper, in favor of becoming more infotainment-oriented?
Have the journalistic styles of the nightly newscasts and
the morning programs converged to the extent that the first
hour of the morning programs is now an alternative source
for the same type of news? Has PBS's "NewsHour"
managed to stake out a separate journalistic terrain in which
it not only covers stories differently but also covers altogether
different stories than the three network news programs?
To get answers, this study conducted a content analysis
of all three network evening and morning newscasts, as well
as the "NewsHour" on PBS. The study encompassed
a month of weekday newscasts (20 days), selected to include
four of each weekday (see Methodology),
110 hours of news programming, an examination of nearly 2,000
separate stories.
Earlier studies have offered some sense of the news agenda
of prime time television news magazines.
The quick answers:
-
Having experimented with tabloid, sensation, lifestyle
and celebrity during the mid-1990s, nightly network newscasts
have become more traditional, some might say serious,
in their topic agenda since September 11. It is an oversimplification,
however, to suggest they have returned to the news agenda
of 15 years ago.
-
However they have evolved, nightly newscasts remain quite
distinct from morning newscasts or cable--more likely
to cover the major news of the day and to do so with stories
that are carefully written and edited, and more densely
sourced than elsewhere on television.
-
People who get their news from network morning shows,
on the other hand, are seeing a world more focused around
true crime, entertainment, lifestyle, and, when they are
covered, the human interest angle on government and foreign
affairs.
-
The "NewsHour" resembles morning news in its
interview-heavy format as well as the nightly news in
its public policy content. But it has adopted a focus
on government and foreign affairs that is even heavier
than the front pages of most newspapers.
The Three Commercial Nightly Newscasts
The best evidence suggests there is something of a U-curve
to the nightly news agenda over the last 20 years. Looking
at studies from different researchers, there was a steady
move after the Cold War toward subjects like entertainment,
lifestyle and celebrity crimes, and away from subjects such
as international events and public policy debates. That move
toward a lighter agenda began to ease in the late 1990s and
the news agenda has become even more serious again after September
11.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) has tracked
the news agenda -- the topics of stories -- on network nightly
news off and on for 26 years. The Tyndall Report, using slightly
different methodology, has tracked time devoted to different
topics on network news every weeknight for 16 years. The Center
for Media and Public Affairs, whose president is Robert Lichter,
has published tracking of topics by story on network news
every night (weekday and weekend) going back to 1990 using
a methodology similar to that of the PEJ. All three approaches
concur in revealing this gradual shifting of the news agenda
on nightly news.
The methodology of the Tyndall Report, whose publisher is
Andrew Tyndall, counts specific story themes but not broader
topic categories. The report shows that coverage of U.S. foreign
policy has returned to levels found at the end of the Cold
War, although coverage of international affairs not related
to the U.S. has not. But Tyndall also notes that the war in
Iraq is a singular event that makes projections into the future
uncertain. The PEJ's more episodic measurements of the full
topic agenda of nightly newscasts, reinforces Tyndall's findings
about international coverage. It also finds, though, that
the agenda is still less oriented to government and public
policy than in the 1970's and 80's. Government coverage had
declined to just 5% in 2001 and 2002, down from 32% in 1987.
In the 2003 study, government topics climbed back to 16% of
all stories, though still just half of where it was in 1987.
If coverage of foreign affairs and government were up, what
was down? Generally crime and more lifestyle and entertainment-oriented
news topics. Stories were half as likely to be about crime
in 2003 than they were in 2002 (6 percent in 2003 versus 12
percent in 2002.) Entertainment and lifestyle coverage dropped
to just 8 percent of stories; these topics had come to make
up nearly 20 percent of stories studied in 2001. They declined
after September 11 and rose back to 19 percent of stories
in the first six months of 2002.
Science coverage appears to have declined somewhat over the
last two years (to 2 percent of stories).
Almost certainly one reason for the more traditional agenda
on nightly news is the foreign policy of the current administration.
Given the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Afghanistan
and Iraq, the networks have had little choice but to have
government, military or foreign policy dominate their story
selection, irrespective of cost.
Yet one interesting thing about the 2003 war in Iraq and
the Gulf War 12 years ago, Tyndall says, is that the usual
patterns of overseas coverage were not followed. Increased
U.S. foreign policy coverage normally has the effect of increased
international coverage unrelated to U.S. foreign policy as
reporters try to put U.S. actions in a global context. That
tended to happen during the Cold War, when coverage of the
internal affairs of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe increased.
It also happened immediately after the September 11 attacks,
but it did not continue in 2003.
Tyndall also suggests words like hard and soft news may be
misleading in describing the shift. In the 1970s, he reminds
us, Walter Cronkite, who was then the CBS anchor, would often
close with a four-or-five-minute human-interest piece by Charles
Kuralt "On the Road." Tyndall suggests that in the
1990s the networks added an array of family and lifestyle
topics, covering such things as childrearing, sexuality, reproduction,
tobacco, nutrition, obesity, eldercare and early education.
He says that demographic calculations to target more women
go into the decisions to cover these topics. But he suggests
that it is unfair to consider these necessarily less serious
issues.
While the domestic agenda has broadened and become a larger
part of network news over the years, some topics are notably
absent in the composite month of newscasts studied in 2003.
The environment, for instance, made up just 1 percent of the
stories on nightly news. The same was true of education, transportation
and religion. Technology made up even less. Coverage of the
healthcare system in the country made up 3 percent of the
stories. By contrast, accidents and disasters (excluding weather)
made up 6 percent of the stories on the nightly news.
Nightly News Topics Over Time
Percent of All Stories
|
1977 |
1987 |
1997 |
June 2001 |
Oct. 2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
| Government |
37% |
32% |
18% |
5% |
7% |
5% |
16% |
| Foreign/Military |
21 |
19 |
15 |
17 |
10 |
21 |
25 |
| Defense |
1 |
1 |
3 |
6 |
29 |
16 |
3 |
| Domestic |
8 |
7 |
5 |
18 |
34 |
12 |
16 |
| Crime |
8 |
7 |
13 |
12 |
4 |
12 |
6 |
| Business |
6 |
11 |
7 |
14 |
5 |
11 |
12 |
| Celebrity/Enter. |
2 |
3 |
8 |
5 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| Lifestyle |
4 |
11 |
14 |
13 |
1 |
17 |
6 |
| Science |
4 |
5 |
6 |
4 |
11 |
2 |
2 |
| Accidents/Disasters |
9 |
5 |
10 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
10 |
| Other |
N.A. |
N.A. |
N.A. |
3 |
0 |
N.A. |
2 |
Looked at another way, if you watched a commercial nightly
newscast every weeknight for a month - some 10 hours of programming
- you would have seen:
-
Less than a minute about culture and the arts
-
Less than a minute on family and parenting
-
About four minutes on the environment
-
Less than five minutes about transportation
-
Slightly less than seven minutes about education
-
About 14 minutes on healthcare
-
About 16 minutes of crime
-
About 22 minutes on accidents and disasters
-
About 74 minutes on government matters
-
About 97 minutes on foreign affairs
How does this news agenda compare to Page A-1 of America's
newspapers?
The three network nightly newscasts remain the closest thing
one can find to it on commercial television. While newspaper
front pages are slightly more oriented to government and slightly
less oriented to foreign affairs and the war, in the main
they are quite similar. Neither focused heavily on crime,
and both avoided celebrity and lifestyle coverage.
Topics in the News: Newspapers vs. Nightly
News, 2003
Percent of All Stories
|
Newspapers
(Page A1 only) |
Commercial Nightly News |
PBS "Newshour" |
| Government |
16% |
26% |
24% |
| Foreign/Military |
25 |
18 |
39 |
| Defense |
3 |
3 |
* |
| Domestic |
16 |
22 |
11 |
| Crime |
6 |
7 |
2 |
| Business |
12 |
6 |
11 |
| Celebrity/Enter. |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Lifestyle |
6 |
8 |
3 |
| Science |
2 |
3 |
3 |
| Accidents/Disasters |
10 |
4 |
4 |
| Other |
2 |
2 |
2 |
The commercial nightly news was more likely to focus on always-graphic
disasters (10 percent versus 4 percent of newspaper front
pages). They were also twice as likely to carry business stories,
though a portion of that is the nightly recitation of the
advance or decline of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and
newspapers normally have a separate section devoted exclusively
to business.
The "NewsHour" on the noncommercial PBS is closer
to newspaper front pages in its orientation toward government.
And, it focused more on foreign affairs than either newspaper
front pages or commercial nightly news. Fully 63 percent of
"NewsHour" stories studied were government and foreign
affairs. The program, in turn, carried less other kinds of
domestic news, including crime.
Morning News vs. Evening News Agenda
If nightly news is still the place where viewers can get
the most comprehensive sense of the day's events, morning
news programs have become clearly more important to network
news divisions (see Audience
and Economics).
They have held onto more of their audience and become more
important economically to network fortunes.
What are Americans getting in the morning, and how does it
compare to evening news? Here we can compare how nightly and
morning news allocate their total time for news (rather than
just story counts).
The morning news format is suited to flexibility. The programs
will transform themselves into covering major breaking news
in times of crisis. They revert back to a softer mix in more
normal times. Recent times have seen a series of crises.
Yet even during major events, network morning programs offer
a markedly different and softer news agenda than nightly news.
The two types of newscasts, in other words, are hardly substitutes
for each other. And that is not just a matter of approach,
where the morning programs emphasize live interviews by the
anchors and the evening programs feature edited pieces taped
by correspondents.
Compared with the total time on nightly newscasts, the morning
news programs:
-
Are much more focused on crime (19 percent vs. 5 percent)
-
Spend much less time on affairs of government (8 percent
vs. 17 percent)
-
Spend half as much time on foreign events (13 percent
vs. 26 percent)
-
Spend vastly more time on celebrities (14 percent vs.
2 percent)
-
Spend twice as much time on lifestyle news (15 percent
vs. 7 percent)
And these differences are just looking at the first hour
of morning news - the more hard-news-oriented hour. If the
second hour (and the third in the case of the "Today"
show on NBC) had been sampled as well, the differences would
have almost certainly been even more pronounced.
Given that morning news ratings are stable or rising, while
evening is shrinking, this has significant implications. Those
who get their television news in the morning are learning
about a different agenda of what matters and are far more
likely to talk about the trial in the murder of Laci Peterson,
Michael Jackson's child-molestation case or Tom Cruise's movie,
even in the supposedly hard-news hour of the morning, than
those who get their news in the evening. When they discuss
the war in Iraq around the water cooler, it is personalized
as human interest in Jessica Lynch rather than issues such
as compliance with Security Council resolutions. It is a world
where the economy is covered as household finance tips; where
science is covered as innovations in personal health or consumer
electronics; and where environmental stories such as global
warming are covered as the latest weather disaster.
Topics in Network News, 2003
Percent of All Time
| Topic |
Network Morning |
Network Nightly Comm. |
PBS Newshour |
| Government |
8% |
17% |
33% |
| Foreign/Military |
13 |
26 |
32 |
| Defense |
5 |
3 |
1 |
| Domestic |
11 |
18 |
13 |
| Crime |
19 |
5 |
1 |
| Business |
1 |
9 |
5 |
| Celebrity/Enter. |
14 |
2 |
* |
| Lifestyle |
15 |
7 |
6 |
| Science |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Accidents/Disasters |
9 |
9 |
2 |
| Other |
3 |
2 |
3 |
On the other hand, it might be a mistake to imagine that
these programs gained in ratings in 2003 because of a lighter
news agenda. Indeed, some evidence suggests the morning news
programs have moved more in the direction of traditional news
about government and foreign affairs lately, thanks, perhaps,
to several major events.
Research by the Tyndall Report finds that the 2000 Florida
recount represented one such moment. Viewers waking up wanted
to know who the next President was, and ratings rose. Eight
months later, however, a study of one month of morning show
content by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in 2001
saw little in the way of substantive coverage of major news
events. That changed after September 11, when coverage became
more serious again. Yet that, too, did not last. A PEJ study
of the first six months of 2002 found a return to softer topics,
though not as far back as in the summer of 2001.
In 2003, the content analysis finds, the war in Iraq represented
another spike in coverage of major events in the morning television
news and a move toward a more serious agenda.
In June 2001, for instance, only 4 percent of morning stories
pertained to government, defense or foreign affairs. In the
first half of 2002, that had risen to 14 percent of stories.
In 2003, that had doubled again to 29 percent.
Morning News Topics Over Time
Percent of All Stories
| |
June 2001 |
Oct. 2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
| Government |
1% |
5% |
2% |
8% |
| Foreign/Military |
3 |
9 |
7 |
17 |
| Defense |
* |
15 |
5 |
4 |
| Domestic |
3 |
29 |
8 |
10 |
| Crime |
12 |
2 |
13 |
18 |
| Business |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
| Celebrity/Enter. |
25 |
12 |
20 |
11 |
| Lifestyle |
45 |
11 |
38 |
14 |
| Science |
5 |
14 |
2 |
2 |
| Accidents/Disasters |
2 |
1 |
1 |
11 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
N.A. |
3 |
While celebrity and lifestyle make up a large percentage
of morning news, that percentage is apparently down, from
70 percent of all stories in June 2001 and 58 percent in 2002
to 25 percent in 2003.
Still, to the extent that morning news is becoming the key
newscast in any news division, this has significant implications
in terms of the values of the news division, the expertise
of its reporters and producers, and the knowledge and brand
that it provides to the American public. Their prominence
and popularity represent a change in the mission of the network
news divisions to an emphasis of less serious policy-oriented
fare. The fact that these divisions' resources, promotional
efforts, star anchors and profits are focused more than they
were 15 years ago on the morning programs, and less on their
evening newscasts, demonstrates a shift in the center of gravity
of their news values.
The Lehrer News Menu
If the nightly news has become somewhat less important,
and the morning programs more important, to what extent has
that created a larger niche for public broadcasting's "NewsHour"
with Jim Lehrer? The Lehrer show by reputation certainly would
be positioned as the most traditional, the most hard-news
oriented, the most likely to report in depth on issues that
others in television might shun. Is that borne out in the
content analysis? Does the "NewsHour" cover a different
agenda of topics?
The content study suggests that in some ways, Lehrer is indeed
staking out a distinct journalistic terrain for itself, perhaps
one carefully tailored to a PBS audience. With an hour-long
newscast and feature interviews, it takes on more of the format
of the morning shows. At the same time, though, its news agenda
is more in line with the evening news: a commitment to foreign
policy and government, and a disdain for entertainment, celebrity
and pop culture - only more so. The "NewsHour" spends
even less time than evening news on crime, accidents and disasters.
The program's coverage of government and domestic issues,
however, may be influenced by other considerations as well.
For one, focusing on interviews with government newsmakers
is an inexpensive way to do news, particularly for a broadcast
based in Washington.
Beyond the question of topics, there are a host of other
differences in the content of evening, morning and noncommercial
news.
News Content Versus Ads and Teases
These differences begin with how much news content one gets
inside each of these programs. For 30 minutes of programming,
we examined the average number of news minutes versus advertisements
and promotional announcements.
The nightly newscasts used to be described as 22 minutes
of news in a 30-minute program.
That is no longer the case. In the month of programs studied,
the amount of news on the three commercial nightly newscasts,
after teases, promotional announcements and commercials were
removed, was closer to 18 minutes 48 seconds. This varied,
somewhat noticeably, by network. NBC's "Nightly News"
had significantly more news content (an average of 19 minutes
45 seconds) than either ABC's "World News Tonight"
(18 minutes 30 seconds) or CBS's "Evening News"
(18 minutes 56 seconds).
The evening network news nevertheless had more content time
than the morning news programs. In the mornings, only 15 minutes
6 seconds of every half-hour is content (based on the first
hour of programming), once the commercials, promotional announcements
and teases, and local news inserts are removed.
NBC's news program again came out on top. In the New York
market, where our sample of morning shows was videotaped,
the local NBC station averaged 16 minutes 21 seconds per half-hour.
The CBS station was second with 14 minutes 54 seconds and
ABC was third with 14 minutes 6 seconds.
While local news inserts were not analyzed in this study,
they are certainly an important part of the content for morning
news shows. According to research by Andrew Tyndall, in the
second quarter of 2003 the local New York stations averaged
the following amount of time for local news: WABC averaged
6 minutes in the first hour, WCBS 5 averaged minutes 42 seconds,
and WNBC averaged 3 minutes 6 seconds.
The "NewsHour" is "commercial-free,"
of course, although it still contains teases of what is to
come on the program and funding credits and the beginning
and end of the program. Still, once those are taken out, there
is a good deal more news packed in. In 30 minutes of the "NewsHour,"
26 minutes were news content, more than 7 minutes more than
on the commercial networks' nightly news and 11 minutes more
than on the network morning programs.
Nightly News Beyond Topic
Beyond time, what is the structure of the three commercial
nightly newscasts in 2004?
They remain the showcase for the work of correspondents,
their editors and producers. That is because these programs
are made up largely of taped, edited packages. By comparison,
the "NewsHour" and the morning programs, with their
emphasis on extended interviews, are an anchor's medium.
Almost the entire news hole on the three commercial nightly
newscasts is devoted to edited packages (84 percent of the
time on these programs versus the "NewsHour's" 31
percent and the morning programs' 36 percent).
The three networks average 6.8 such packages each evening,
at an average length of 138 seconds, including the anchor's
introduction.
Story Origination on Evening News
Percent of All Time
|
Commercial |
"NewsHour" |
| Packages |
84% |
31% |
| External Interviews |
1 |
56 |
| Correspondent Interviews |
1 |
0 |
| Stand-ups |
2 |
2 |
| Anchor Reads |
12 |
8 |
| External Sources |
0 |
4 |
| Banter |
0 |
0 |
This reliance on taped packages and correspondents has consequences
beyond style. The time involved in writing, editing and checking
a story translates into more time to verify facts and more
sources than can be found in other story forms, including
live interviews. The power to check and to edit is important.
This is quantifiable in the sourcing measurements.
Unlike the live stand-ups, which are the staple format for
cable news correspondents, these taped packages are more comprehensively
sourced, with named and identified institutions and individuals,
often in the form of direct quotations, soundbites from people
whose inflection, mood, tone and sincerity viewers can assess
directly.
To isolate this, the study examined how many sources a story
cited, and whether those sources were named and their level
of expertise and potential biases were described so that audiences
could determine more for themselves how to evaluate the information.
The less transparency there was, the more audiences would
have to accept the word of the news program that these sources
were believable. At the bottom of the sourcing scale would
be a story based on a lone anonymous source. At the top would
be a story with at least four named and fully described sources.
Overall, the three commercial nightly newscasts had higher
levels of sourcing on average than did other kinds of news
programs. Nearly half of all stories (48 percent) had two
or more fully named and described sources, and 18 percent
cited four or more of these sources.
What about anonymous sourcing? Overall, less than a third
(29%) of nightly news stories contained anonymous sources.
Usually the networks made some attempt to describe these anonymous
sources so that viewers could have some basis to judge their
credibility. Only 14 percent of the stories had at least one
anonymous source without any explanation of why the source
was credible, such as "CBS has learned" or "sources
tell ABC."
Story Length
For all that people complain about brevity on television
news, network nightly newscasts tended to rely either on fairly
long stories by modern standards or very short ones.
About half of all stories on the three commercial nightly
newscasts, 52 percent, were more than 90 seconds while 42
percent were less than 40 seconds. Very few stories, just
6 percent, fell anywhere in between (41 seconds to 90 seconds),
the type of truncated package that is a staple of some local
television newscasts. The biggest difference between the commercial
network news and the "NewsHour" was that the "NewsHour,"
following the format of the morning news, tended to do more
very long stories. A third, 33 percent, of its stories were
longer than three minutes. The bulk of these long stories,
however, were interviews or panel discussion, which often
provide in-depth discussions with a limited range of people.
The downside is that these often replace edited packages,
which are more densely sourced and written and are less vulnerable
to an interview subject's filibustering.
Some in network news say that modern television news stories
are probably more densely packed with information than were
stories of similar lengths in earlier years. The new technology
- satellites, video feeds, computer-generated graphics and
more sophisticated editing equipment - allows producers and
editors to more easily add more information from more sources.
The technology also allows journalists to include more, pithier
and shorter soundbites in stories rather than longer but perhaps
longwinded ones. Modern audiences are also presumed to process
information more quickly. In the period of film in television
news, in the mid-1970s and earlier, there was less content
available and what was available was more difficult to pack
into pieces. As a result, television professionals argue,
stories sometimes grew to fill the space.
Bush as Protagonist
For years critics also have argued that television has personalized
news, causing journalists to build their stories more around
people or institutions, and less around events. This was supposedly
especially true of coverage of the presidency. The White House
became a backdrop for the president. But even elsewhere, government
stories became focused around a single personality, perhaps
the mayor in a town, taking on the special interests. Politics
became more personal. Television was a character-driven medium.
Does the 2003 content bear this out? To a large degree, no.
In all, only 23 percent of evening news stories focused at
least half of their content around a single personality, even
less than newspapers (32 percent and 28% on newspaper front
pages).
Morning Shows
If the nightly news is still built around correspondents
and taped, edited packages, morning news is not.
Instead, the majority of time on morning news is spent in
live interviews (55 percent), usually conducted by anchors.
Only about a third of the time on morning news is taped, edited
packages (36 percent).
Reading of the news by people on these programs accounts
for 5 percent of the time (but 31 percent of the stories),
usually in the news summary at the top of the hour, read not
by the main anchor but a separate "news" anchor
or reader.
Story and Segment Length
Time is also spent differently in the mornings than on evening
news. The shows produce fewer very short stories, 40 seconds
or less, (29 percent versus 42 percent on commercial evening
news). They also air fewer stories between 90 seconds and
three minutes (30 percent versus 48 percent on commercial
evening). Instead morning news relies more on long segments,
over three minutes. Nearly a third of morning segments go
that long, (31 percent versus 4 percent at night). This may
be part of the morning news' appeal. But these are usually
interviews, not stories. And that has consequences.
Sourcing
Since morning news relies so heavily on interviews as the
story-telling medium, audiences are getting their information
from fewer sources, usually just one or two people being interviewed
by the anchor. The ability to double-check what these people
are saying against the facts, or balance that with not only
opposing views but also with independent or neutral experts,
is more limited. It is by no means impossible, but it is more
difficult, and, we found, not often done.
Only 8 percent of stories or segments on morning news had
the highest level of sourcing and transparency - four named
sources whose expertise and potential biases were explained
so that audiences could judge their credibility. (That compares
to 18 percent on commercial nightly news).
Format alone is not the whole explanation, though it is a
significant part. The "NewsHour," with a similar
format, was more likely to have the highest level of sourcing
(13 percent of stories, compared to 8 percent for morning).
What about anonymous sourcing? In all, 27 percent of morning
stories included at least one anonymous source with some attempt
to describe for audiences why the source was credible. This
was about the same as nightly network news. And 7 percent
of stories included at least one blind anonymous source, about
half that of nightly news.
Protagonists
Morning news also stood out for focusing its segments and
stories more around people as central protagonists. Nearly
half (48 percent) of all stories or interviews primarily concerned
how something affected a central protagonist in the action:
How do you feel about your son coming home from Iraq? Or how
will this affect the president? Or did Kobe Bryant rape that
woman? That was a good deal more than commercial nightly news
(23 percent) or newspapers (32 percent) and markedly more
than on the "NewsHour"(20 percent).
Prime Time News Magazines
This year's study did not include a separate content analysis
of prime time news magazines. But two previous studies of
those programs, in 1997 and 1999, showed a clear pattern.
With the exception of "60 Minutes," the magazines
in no way could be said to cover major news of the day.
Instead, these programs, up against prime time entertainment
shows, specialize in lifestyle and behavior stories, consumer
news-you-can-use pieces and celebrity entertainment. In the
1997 study, 55 percent of their stories concerned these issues.
In addition, 23 percent concerned crime.
Only 8 percent of stories concerned the combined areas of
education, economics, foreign affairs, the military, national
security, politics, government or social welfare issues. A
similar audit of the magazine programs two years later by
the journalist Marc Gunther published in Nieman Reports found
similar results.
The CBS "60 Minutes" program stands out as an exception,
more likely to touch on issues or topics that involved major
events of the day. At the mid-way point in the 2003 - 2004
season, the program aired 12 foreign segments out of 50, about
22 percent, according to an audit compiled for a yet-to-be-published
paper by Elizabeth Weinreb, Director of Special Projects at
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a former
journalist at "60 Minutes."
That percentage is about what the show averages in a regular
season, according to "60 Minutes" staff calculations.
The other exception is "Nightline," the ABC news
program that differs from the magazines not only in content
but also in time slot and in format. It remains probably the
most serious and distinctive news magazine program on television.
Why have the magazines other than "60 Minutes"
and "Nightline" moved so far away from major news
events? It wasn't always this way. Over the past 20 years,
the main mission of prime time news magazines has changed.
When "60 Minutes" began in 1968, it was largely
seen by CBS as a way to fulfill Federal Communications Commission
requirements for public affairs broadcasting. While the network
would have liked the show to make money, the other needs it
helped meet sustained the show through seven years of poor
ratings when it aired irregularly in the Tuesday night 10
pm time slot. It was not until 1975, when CBS moved the show
to the dead hour between 7 and 8 p.m. on Sunday that it became
noticed. By 1978 it was among the top 10 rated programs on
the air and it has been a big success and moneymaker for CBS
ever since.
Seeing that news magazines could be moneymakers - and, more
important, moneymakers that could be produced relatively cheaply
compared with most entertainment programs - the networks went
on a news magazine binge in the 1980s and particularly the
1990s. But as revenues and ratings became the new bottom-line,
that brought changes in how segments were put together and
how they were selected. These programs were competing with
entertainment shows and that affected content.
Topics that scored viewers on one program began appearing
on different shows within weeks or even days of each other.
Tom Yellin, the executive producer of "Peter Jennings
Reporting" on ABC summed up the problem this way: "Deciding
you want to do a story because you think it's interesting
is a risk. If it doesn't work you will be called to account."
To determine a segment's success, according to Weinreb,
many executives turn to research, including minute-by-minute
ratings, to determine what kinds of stories hold viewers.
And some networks tested story concepts to determine whether
segments were winning the "right" (i.e., young)
viewers.
The result is that most programs are largely not the home
of heavy investigative pieces anymore. And the long-term trend
here may be troubling for news professionals when one looks
at what is drawing desirable demographics. President Bush's
first interview about the war in Iraq after the capture of
Saddam Hussein on ABC did not win the ratings battle for younger
viewers. More were tuned into Paris Hilton's turn on Fox's
reality program "The Simple Life."
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