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USA Edition | Today Is Sunday, March 21, 2010 |
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USA Edition | Today Is Sunday, March 21, 2010 |
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Reese Shoenfeld, who, along with Ted Turner, is the father of cable news, sees the condition of television news from a unique perspective. In his March 20 [ 2007 ] posting on his blog [ Me and Ted ] Shoenfeld offers his thoughts on the elusive youth demographic watching television news, i.e. people under the age of 35. In his blog, Shoenfeld asks Are We Beating a Dead Horse?
The answer, is, of course, yes. All of the money and effort that’s been expended to attract the under 35 audience is evidence of the power of the Television News Theology. TVN Theology is based on mysticism. Its roots in broadcast journalism rest on abdication of responsibility and entertainment values. TVN theology relies on inappropriate audience assumptions, and largely misdirected focus group data. News is not inherently entertainment, nor ought it be. News is not about television and has nothing to do with titillating images. Good television [ that which is interesting and mindless ] is, by definition, not news.
News broadcasts do not attract people who are not interested in, or engaged with the world around them. Paris Hilton is not a likely viewer of television news. She, and her generation are an important part of the core television audience. She, and others of her demographic strata, are of vital importance to advertisers. TVN Theology demands that news programs be adjusted, contorted, misdirected, or emasculated so that Paris and her generation will watch television news.
Here’s what Shoenfeld says,
To mix a mammalian metaphor “the young audience” is Moby Dick to everyone in the news business. We search, we hunt, we test audiences, we run focus groups and still well less than 10% of the cable news network audience is under 18. In primetime MSNBC has Olbermann, maybe it helps a little but not much. Headline News has gone tabloid — Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck, still under 10%. CNN’s gone young with Anderson Cooper, under 35’s make up 7.5% of their primetime viewers. Fox sticks with O’Reilly, Hannity & Colmes and Greta; 4% of their audience makes the 18-34 cut. Newspapers are just as bad. They’re constantly adding new columns, new features, new sections in hopes of harpooning younger readers.
The audience for television news has been shrinking for many years. While the networks, and the junk-news purveyors on most local affiliates, are dumbing down, sweetening, and trading their credibility for share points, the people who want to see responsible, credible, relevant television news wonder where the news went?
The answer, increasingly, is to the Internet.
The reason is that news broadcasts largely aimed at attracting Paris Hilton and her demographic are evidence of journalism run a muck.
We have met the enemy in broadcast news. It’s us.
