Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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By Susan Truitt There’s no way to make getting up in the morning easy, but local television news tries. Probably too hard. In most cases, cheerfulness and chat outdistance serious news. TV executives think the pre-eminent concern at that hour of the day is knowing whether to dress warmly and which route to drive to […]
Meet the 2000 Local TV News Project Team This study was conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a journalists’ group in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The scholar team that developed the methodology included Lee Ann Brady of Princeton Survey Research […]
Three years ago our design team of local TV news professionals told us that the most important mission for a newscast was to cover the entire community. The obligation — and what viewers wanted — was a full picture of the life of a place each day, from murders to museum exhibits, from fires to […]
The future of local TV news is not pretty. Of the 178 stations we have studied, 128, or 72%, have experienced overall ratings declines over three years. Twenty-six percent have added viewers. Two percent are flat. At the Radio-TV News Directors Association convention this year, news professionals were already saying that young people find little […]
By Marty Haag Not long ago I came across an internal station memorandum from a local TV news operation that said: “We are an oasis in a sea of change.” Perhaps that’s the problem. We don’t know what we are in local TV news anymore — even metaphorically. No question plagues television news executives more […]
Gore’s Personality Woes While issues continue to drive most voters’ choices, personality remains an important factor in the race, particularly among Gore’s detractors. When asked what they like most about the candidates they support, a plurality of Gore voters (44%) point to his stand on the issues. A significant minority (29%) cite the vice president’s […]
Washington, D.C. Panel E.J. Dionne, The Brookings Institution Andrew Kohut, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Michael Cromartie, The Evangelical Community in American Civic Life project, and the Ethics and Public Policy Center David Devlin-Foltz, The Public Role of Mainline Protestantism project, and the Aspen Institute Alan Mittleman, Center for Jewish Community […]
Section 1: A summer of copyright battles Since our first online music report was released on June 8, 2000, arguments over the place of copyright protections on digital music have raged in court, in Congress, and in the press. The fundamental issue is whether Internet users should be allowed the unfettered ability to share music files […]
Far More Republicans Satisfied Than in ’96 While Americans are more indifferent to the presidential election than at this stage in the campaigns of 1992 or 1996, they also are more satisfied with their choice of candidates. Indeed, more than six-in-ten (62%) express satisfaction with the candidates, far more than at a comparable point in […]
Introduction and Summary Traditional news outlets are feeling the impact of two distinct and powerful trends. Internet news has not only arrived, it is attracting key segments of the national audience. At the same time, growing numbers of Americans are losing the news habit. Fewer people say they enjoy following the news, and fully half […]