TV+News+Update+2

"Debates Continue to Attract Viewers" This //New York Times// article by Brian Stelter shows that television viewers are continuously being attracted to political debates for the coming 2012 presidential election. With political parties having many candidates desiring to be nominated as the running candidates for the 2012 presidency, debates in the Democrat, Republican, and Tea Party have started. Therefore, this news article is important since it demonstrates that political debates have attracted more television viewers, especially in television “saturated” days like Monday nights. For example, “the Republican presidential primary debate held this past Monday, September 12th, attracted 3.6 million viewers to CNN.” This is a surprising fact for the reason that in this particular Monday, there were programs like Monday Night Football on ESPN, the U.S. Tennis Cup final in CBS, among others that were expected to have a significant amount of television viewers, which they did, but it was not an overwhelming difference with those of the political debates that CNN had on this particular day. This is also important, because it shows us that the television news industry benefits in a great extent by the political debates that are done before any election, but mainly in a presidential election that is going to involve the entire country in the coming year. For this reason, not only is the television news industry benefiting in the amount of ratings as demonstrated in the news article, but in advertisement placement too. With more television news viewers, any particular television news industry is going to get a lot of money out of it with a correct advertisement positioning in their schedule. As CNN had one of the highest ratings this past Monday night, September, 12th, only surpassed by NBC with 5.4 million television viewers this past summer, “which was the highest for any debate this year,” FOX, CBS, and other television news industries may have the same results in the coming political candidate debates. This would mean that it may even “take away” television viewers of other type of programming, which would be rare and surprising to see. It all depends on the day in which the political debates are held. It seems that when it comes time to political debates, the television news industry as a whole might find having “unusual high ratings before the 2012 presidential election.”

[|New York Times article]

Manuel Martinez-Ortega

**"Big News Has Changed Over Time"** If we were to compare top news stories from today to as recent as thirty years ago, we would see an alarming change as to what spark peoples’ interest now compared to back then. Although about 65% of adults below the age of thirty claim the Internet to being their main news outlet, 52% of those people are still watching television news to help keep them informed. (Dyer 1). How “informed” are these people //really//, though? Beacon Journal Columnist Bob Dyer reported that since entertainment- along with lifestyle and consumer news, have taken up the majority of news outlets nowadays, many people hardly know facts regarding basic necessities, let alone global issues and politics. For example, “an astounding 60% (of people) don’t know where our electricity comes from (coal)”. (Dyer 1). Really, people? This is just one example as to how television news has changed dramatically. There seems to be a increasing number of people tuning into their morning/evening news networks in hopes to see what new weight loss supplement is new on the market or if Lindsay Lohan is out jail, rather than progress of our military troops deployed in Afghanistan or any updates on the new Health Care Plan. More news needs to get put back into news networks. Changes that are happening in our government and any updates on the current war our country is at is far more important than, for example, how much money a particular celebrity spent on a house. While it is no surprise how much our typical television news network has changed, what is surprising is because of the increasing amount of “entertainment” news, there is now a decrease in the amount of global knowledge among several citizens. Dyer’s (and many others) concerns are, “If we don’t even know the players or the basic issues, how is this whole political process supposed to work?” (Dyer 1). A fantastic start would be to take away mindless information from the top news stations- the way television news used to be.

[|Bob Dyer: 'Big News' Has Changed Over Time] Laura Barrick

In July 2011, charges about tactics used by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to get information, unveiled a series of privacy violations and led to the closing of the newspaper and the scrutiny of news organizations. member of the parliament in London, expressed outrage with the allegations that journalists had hacked the voicemail of a 13 year old murder victim and relatives of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
 * News Corp Privacy Scandal update**

The scandal took and immediate toll in News Corporation, the second biggest and most important media conglomerate in the world. The allegations of privacy violation and hacking by journalists as a way to get stories and the news made everyone question how common this practice is and decreased the credibility of the news industry. It made people believe this might not be the first time this happens and how many other times has the citizen's privacy been violated as a way to get information.

The article I chose is an update on the case of the murder victim whose voicemail were illegaly intercepted. The article says Ruper Murdoch's News Corporation has oofered $3.2 million to the family and another $1.6 million may go to charity. However, this is not the first time hacking accusation of News Corp, in 2008 a soccer executive received $1.4 million from Murdoch's company.

This article is relevant to class because it makes us think about privacy issues and the ethics involved in media. With technology becoming more and more important in people's life and people disclosing so much information on the web it is easier for this kind of privacy violations to happen. I don't think this is the first time this happens. People have to pay more attention so this kind of incidents don't become regular and government should scrutinize the privacy policies of news corporations.

[|New York Times article]

by Paola Cuevas

Changes In TV News Formats
The entire television news industry has changed over the years due to the rapid growth of technology and the ability to get news through all media platforms such as the Internet and radio. In the article, “Exec Predicts Changes in TV News Formats,” by David Bauder, he discusses what the future of evening newscasts are in the eyes of CBS Corporation Chairman Leslie Moonves. According to Moonves, the way news is broadcasted is going to change because of people turning more towards cable news channels, smart phones, and the Internet for their news sources. For a lot of people in the news industry this change was inevitable. Moonves explains how since people are getting their news through other media outlets, there is nothing that “CBS Evening News” could discuss that isn’t already known. Overall viewership was down in all three broadcasts in 2010 because of people finding their news elsewhere, while CBS had the lowest decrease of viewership at 6%.

Although Moonves’ prediction of a change in evening newscasts may have been true because technology is becoming more and more assessable to people giving them the ability to find anything out with a single tweet, viewership has actually gone up since 2010. In the Huffington Post article, “Evening Newscasts All See Ratings Growth for the First Time Since 2002” it talks about how all three major broadcasting networks have seen an increase in viewers for the first time since 2002. Unfortunately for Moonves, “ABC World News With Diane Sawyer” was the network to see the biggest increase with 3.3% more viewership.

I think this growth in viewership is important to the TV news industry because it shows even though people are able to get news through various media outlets; people have started to turn towards evening news broadcasts again at the end of the day.

[|Exec Predicts Changes in TV News Formats] [|Evening Newscasts All See Ratings Growth Since 2002]

By: Taylor Baresic


 * Broadcast Evening Newcasts and Network Morning Shows Grow Viewership **

A couple streaks were ended this week in the realm of evening news and morning shows, as both TV News industries were able to grow their viewership for the first time in several years. For the first time in 9 years, the ratings for the top 3 evening newscasts (NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, and CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley) grew year-over-year combining for 637,000 more viewers than the 2009-2010 season. This growth comes after a loss of 739,000 viewers in 2009-2010. The big 3 morning shows (NBC's "Today", ABC's "Good Morning America", and CBS's "Early Show") saw an even greater streak come to an end when each of their younger viewership totals increased for the first time since the 1992-1993 season, a remarkable 18 years of declining viewers.

What these numbers don't tell us is what the future holds for these news programs. Is this a sign of renewed interest in TV news programs, or is this simply a chance occurrence where ratings will begin declining once again? Will we see viewership increase for many years to come or is this simply the effect of decreasing viewership finally “bottoming out?” I mean, these shows can only lose so many viewers until they have no choice but to increase, right? Could these viewership numbers be skewed due to Nielsen’s recent calculation errors? 

The reasons contributing to the increase are more likely complex with no single factor completely responsible. Whatever the cause, the networks are sure to be pleased with the results. “Good Morning America” saw the biggest increase in the coveted younger viewers age bracket of 25-54 year-olds, a total of 3% more viewers. Are young adults ditching alternative sources of news such as Cable Networks or the Internet in favor of broadcast news? Not likely. This could possibly mean that more people are interested in news than in recent years, and they are consuming this information from several different media outlets. The 2011-2012 season will hopefully shed some light on the future trends of TV news consumption.

For First Time in 9 Years, All Three Evening Newscasts Grow Viewership For First Time in 18 Seasons, Network Morning Shows Add Younger Viewers; Add Total Viewers for First Time in 7 Seasons

By **Josh** **French**

TV News Update 1 | TV News Update 2 | TV News Update 3 | TV News Update 4 | TV News Update 5