54. The audience is clearly defined and they now strive to appeal to this audience’s prurient interests
Hinweis der Redaktion
In our research into the nature of the NBC coverage generally, we have essentially re-discovered and validated many of the systematic functioning issues that are common criticisms in media studies. Today, we want to give you a good idea of the function NBC Nightly News serves for the public, where we believe it falls short, and we will offer some theories as to why the network, and the Nightly News segment in particular, possesses these failings.
- Appeals to an older audience: As a non-cable network news network it holds a different position from CNN, for example, in terms of their goals and their intended demographic 2nd oldest viewership after CBS Primetime slot: NBC is up against ABC and CBS’s nightly news programs on their local affiliate channels within this timeslotRatings:#1 for 77 consecutive weeks as of March 6, 2011Although in the past 30 years there has been a steady decline in evening news viewing but of the major networks NBC has faired the best (stateofthemedia.org) W/in Parent Network:NBC Nightly News is the (MS)NBC network’s news program that is formatted in the way that news was prior to 24-hr coverage. This format is intended to provide viewers with the most important stories of the day.*will talk more about this later as we believe this position within the network is one of the limitations of the program.- Online Presence: NBC Nightly News’s website has many stories that are online only. In addition, the have several video clips and links that break down stories by topic. The website is put together very well and is extremely easy to navigate NBC Dominates in web traffic compared to ABC and CBS but they are 3rd overall after Yahoo and CNN (although interestingly enough they are used more often than The New York Times.
The NBC Agenda: talks about the same things as everyone else. Depending on the situation, they either follow the standard agenda of the mainstream media or they set that same agenda… Example: WMD. This example shows how the agenda setting by MSNBC and other mainstream news media organizations made the public worry about the presence of WMD in Iraq when there was almost no actual factual basis on which these fears could rest. (discovered later and covered by NBC as the fault of the government for lying. Failed to look critically at themselves and ask why they reported as facts things that were not evidentially supported. Pathos: This relates to NBC’s goal to elicit emotions in that through their extensive coverage of the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq they create an identity for the government’s cause and not only help to further the government’s agenda, but they also provide an explanation for the government’s actions that appeal to the sensibilities of the public.
RATINGS: The reason for the personalization is for ratings. People are more likely to say “Did you hear about that woman that lost her house because of foreclosure?” rather than “Did you see that story where they listed a bunch of facts about foreclosures?” Personalization adds a touch that strikes a chord within people and brings out PATHOS.ROLE OF ANCHORS:1970-1982: John Chancellor as co-anchor after this troika (3 rotating anchors) broke up, Chancellor was never able to succeed over Cronkite and the CBS Evening News1982-2004: Brokaw attracts more viewers, CBS slides into third place with the loss of Cronkite.2004-Present: - Brian Williams - becomes more favorable among viewers for his coverage both during and after the 2005 hurricane seasonThroughout the past 40 years, NBC’s Nightly News has been constantly competing with CBS and ABC, the constant strive to achieve the number one spot has led this organization towards appealing to a broad audience while building a stable relationship between viewers and anchor.This can be effective, however, personalization is only effective when it is used in small doses. NBC overdoes it with the personalization, ESPECIALLY on NBC Nightly News. They could do more general stories and not oversimplify things in order to get a better news broadcast, but this would likely negatively affect ratings. This is the main problem with attempting to critique a prime time newscast.
They tend to be NBC correspondents. Very rarely does NBC pull experts from someone that they are not directly associated with. Sometimes the experts they select are good ones because the people that work for NBC are extremely qualified, but sometimes NBC could use to bring in other experts that are more qualified than the ones they have in house.9/11 and HK: portrayed as disasters in which the U.S. government had relatively little controlFinancial Crisis: Maria Bartiromo – technically a correspondent so she is not an actual authority and should not be used as such.War Coverage: VP (Chaney), SOS (Powell), SOD (Rumsfeld)IRAQ: trusting these particular sources becomes problematic in this particular crisis
Bureaus: Although they do not have any bureaus in Africa, they have more than ABC and CBS overall and particularly in the Middle East Online Presence: Twitter account can be confusing indicating to us that they are not necessarily sure how to effectively utilize all of the technologies and developments, but their presence is evolving and they are attempting to maintain a relevance with the new technologies: First Person: a tool for citizens to upload video or photo content to the web for NBC to use on air.
![“The networks offer entirely too much decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. And without courage and vision, television is nothing more than lights and wires in a box” –Edward R. Murrow Our Agenda ,[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)