Students could also study television news, contrasting it with other sources for news. Television news, particularly local news, has become a major revenue source for local television stations. It has therefore assumed an increasing prominence in terms of local stations’ promotion and function within a local community. And, most Americans acquire their news from television news, although, as previously noted in terms of increased used of web-based news, is changing. One study, for the Local TV News Project — 2002, reported by Todd Belt, “Viewers Keep Disappearing,” found a decline in audience viewing of local television news broadcasts.

In 1998, our first year of studying the ratings trends of local newscasts, two thirds of the stations in our study were experiencing declines in viewership. By 2002, that number had increased to 76%. Between November 2000 and November 2001, when the aftermath of September 11th dominated the airwaves, local news viewership fell seven percent even while network news gained viewers.
 
But the viewership declines are not the same across the board: there are differences by network affiliation, market size, and time slot.
 
To begin with, one of the three major networks — ABC — is experiencing bigger ratings losses than its competitors. In our sample, 82% of stations affiliated with ABC lost viewers, compared with 72% of those affiliated with CBS and 70% of those with NBC. One strong possibility for this decline is the well-publicized problems ABC has had in prime time since its acquisition by Disney in 1996.
 
The second trend we found was that stations in larger markets were more likely to be losing viewers than those in smaller markets. Dividing the country into four parts according to market size, we found that in the top fourth, comprising the eight largest markets, 78% of stations are losing viewers. In the second-largest markets, the figure is 80%. But in the next size category, the number of stations losing viewers drops to 70%. And in the nation’s smallest markets, the figure is 64%.
 
One partial explanation may be that larger percentages of households subscribe to cable in the larger markets, meaning there is more competition.
 
Nonetheless, as news directors work their way up to larger markets where the stakes of their decisions are greater, their problems are compounded because the competition is greater.
 
Finally, late-evening newscasts were more likely to be losing viewers than early-evening programs. In our sample, 76% of newscasts airing in 10 or 11 p.m. time slots lost viewers, compared to 71% at 5 or 6 p.m. Perhaps not coincidentally, the later newscasts were found to suffer from lower quality, as well. On the other hand, people may simply be going to bed earlier and watching the early morning news instead on the late evening broadcast.

The demographics of news audiences have also been changing. While younger audiences may still be reading newspapers, they are less interested in viewing network news or watching programs such as ABC’s Nightline. Because producers prefer a younger audience given their attraction for advertisers, the content of television news, particularly for cable-news, has focused more on topics of interest to a younger audience. And, given a younger audience’s preference for Web-based news, newspapers and TV news have shifted the appearance and layout of their news.

Audiences may also differ in how they are using the news. In some cases, they may simply be listening to or viewing the news as a backdrop distraction while engaging in other tasks or household activities. They may also link certain times of the day with ritual consumption of news—reading a newspaper at breakfast or watching the evening news before going to bed. Or, they may experience the news simply as a form of entertainment.

Students could go to sites of television news for students and note how the news on those sites is geared or selected for a student audience:

ABC News 4 Kids [ elementary and middle school students ]
CNN Student News
News Currents [ middle school students ]

In other cases, audiences may have certain specific deliberative uses for the news. For example, given a specific issue or topic related to their own lives — a political campaign or the health of their business, audiences may focus attention on acquiring information necessary for engaging in these activities. The extent to which they experience a sense of power or agency to influence their lives may influence the degree to which they attend to certain stories. Audiences who have a sense of power related to influencing events may read stories quite differently than those with little sense of power.

Module 10: Word document

Newspaper or Print News

Teaching the News Itself

Analysis of Newspaper Sections and Functions

Differences in Types and Uses of News

On-line News

Web-based Political Lobbying

Weblogs

The Web and Politics

Editorial Perspectives

Newspaper Ownership

News Bias

A Teacher Teaches about Bias

Studying and Producing Classroom / School Newspapers

Television and Radio News

Characteristics of Television News

Selecting News Stories

Accuracy / Completeness of News Coverage

Television News Development

On-line Television News

Sports Coverage

Coverage of Political Issues and Campaigns

Creating a Television News Broadcast

Teaching Activity: Analysis of a Local News Broadcast

References