History of TV News - Part 3

Culture

As the Cronkite era ends, viewership of the evening network news starts an inexorable slide.

Author:

By Mark R. Gould

According to the PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism’s The State of the News Media 2010, Americans are finding news in a lot of different ways today. “To a greater degree than before, Americans turned instead to other outlets for news. On election night (in 2008), for example, the total audience watching cable channels nearly equaled that watching the broadcast television networks for the first time.

“For all that, however, nearly 23 million viewers still tune into the three nightly newscasts each day, several times the number that are tuned into the three cable news channels at any given moment during prime time.”

The New York Times recently reported that the CBS Evening News and ABC's World News have just had their worst quarter for ratings.

Both Katie Couric's and Diane Sawyer's broadcasts have "sunk to the lowest numbers the [programs have had] in a first quarter since the People Meter was introduced by Nielsen in 1987," reported the newspaper.

However, NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams averaged 9.92 million total viewers for its best first quarter average in five years. ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer came in second with 8.27 million total viewers, while CBS Evening News with Katie Couric placed third with 6.45 million total viewers.

Other findings of note from the PEW Project on Excellence:

“For the third consecutive year, only digital and cable news saw audiences grow among the key sectors that deliver news.”

In cable, Fox and CNN enjoyed growth. But the report has an ominous finding regarding the evening network news: “What’s more, the data continue to suggest a clear pattern in how Americans gravitate for news: people are increasingly “on demand” consumers, seeking platforms where they can get the news they want when they want it from a variety of sources rather than have to come at appointed times and to one news organization.”

Yet, legacy news sites continue to be in great demand. The report says, “Online, an analysis of the list of Nielsen Net Ratings list of 4,600 news and information sites saw the collected number of unique visitors grow 9.25%, according to a PEJ analysis. But on that list the top sites tend to dominate. Of the 4,600 sites, the top 7% collect 80% of the traffic. And the top 20 sites attract the majority of that. Legacy media still make up the majority of the most popular destinations, although each year newly created websites are joining the list. Of the news sites with a half million visitors a month (or the top 199 news sites once consulting, government and information data bases are removed), 67% are from legacy media, most of them (48%) newspapers. And most people graze though among a limited number of sites. A new Pew Internet-PEJ survey finds only 21% say they tend to rely primarily on one destination for news online; only a third even say they have a favorite website. But these online news grazers do not range far. Most people, 57%, range from using two –to five websites, and only 11% use more than six.”

Read the report:

PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism’s The State of the News Media 2010

Part 4 of this article revisits how the networks covered the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Part 1 provided a background on the history of broadcast journalism. Part 2 examined how Walter Cronkite's coverage of Watergate and the Vietnam War impacted public perceptions.

Check back the @ your library website for Part 4 of History of TV News to learn how one of the nation’s most respected TV news anchors had an encounter with the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Learn the chilling details and other stories about that infamous day from the nation’s best TV news anchors.

Resources

Variety: Top ten highlights of Walter Cronkite’s career

Life Magazine: Remembering Walter Cronkite

The Atlantic: David Halberstam on Cronkite

A Reporter's Life
by Walter Cronkite

This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV
by Bob Schieffer

Good Night, Chet: A Biography of Chet Huntley
by Lyle Johnston

Anchors: Brokaw, Jennings, Rather and the Evening News
by Robert Goldberg and Gerald Jay Goldberg

Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism
By Ralph Engelman

Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control
by Fred W. Friendly

The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism
by Lynne Olson and Stanley W. Cloud

With Heroic Truth: The Life of Edward R. Murrow
by Norman H. Finkelstein