Updated: 12/16/2011

The Decline of

TV News Credibility

Although TV news has its moments of shinning success, such as the coverage of the terrorist attacks on the East Coast of the United States in September, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003, over the last few decades the credibility of TV news in general has declined.

Here are just a few reasons why:

TV news is no longer seen as public interest programming the way it once was. It's now a moneymaking endeavor driven by ratings.

As media mergers continue and there is more of an emphasis on corporate profits, business interests have taken over news operations and cut back on reporters, writers, videographers, and technicians.
Since rating points translate into profits, maximizing audience size is now the driving force behind most TV news. This has resulted in a shift away from stories which have social and political significance to stories that are "more engaging" and more easily understood by viewers.
Some local stations do little to cover the fact that in order to boost station ratings they regularly use their newscasts to promote and cash in on the
popularity of shows on their network.
Audiences are having a difficult time distinguishing between reality (hard news), reenactment (drama), and opinions and editorial content. As a result, the line between them has become blurred in the minds of many TV viewers, and the credibility and believability of hard news has diminished.
With the emphasis shifting to form over substance, stations tend to favor "news actors" over competent news reporters. This article and the follow-up letter speak to part of this issue.
In order to increase ratings some cable news channels are slanting news toward the preferred views of their audience.

Many broadcast professionals remember a time when newspapers and electronic journalism were held in much higher esteem — primarily because there was a "high wall" separating news departments and bottom-line corporate interests.

[we have seen] a 20-year trend in which the media...have steadily replaced journalistic standards with those of show business.

Frank Rich, The New York Times

News and Politics

A study conducted by USC's Annenberg School for Communication and the University of Wisconsin-Madison analyzed newscasts of 122 local TV stations in the nation's largest media markets during the 2002 mid-term elections. They found that the majority of the newscasts at these stations did not contain a single campaign story.

Of those that did, the average story was 89 seconds long. Most stories did not focus on issues, but simply who was ahead in the election. A clear link was found between stations owned by media chains and the absence of local election information.

The situation is even worse in radio, where thousands of stations in the U.S. are owned by a single company which has few if any ties to local communities.

It is assumed -- generally by newscast consultants hired by the stations -- that election news does not help ratings. Even so, political advertising is a major source of revenue for the stations.

...most of the nation's newspapers and magazines and television stations, seeking greater profits through larger audiences, fed the public a diet of crime news, celebrity gossip, and soft features, choosing to exclude more serious topics that news managers feared would not stimulate public attention.

CNN Journalist Peter Arnett with one
explanation as to why Americans tend to
be less informed about world events
than citizens of many other countries

At the same time we need to put some things into perspective.

For many years TV has represented the number one source of news and information for the vast majority of people in industrialized nations.

During times of national crisis, such as the September 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation and the world immediately turned to television for information. The dramatic and moving television images during this time brought a nation together in shared grief and outrage.

On September 21, 2002, almost all of the U.S. networks devoted two hours of commercial-free programming to a telethon to raise money for the 9/11 victims. The same type of commercial-free coverage took place in March, 2003, when the networks covered their first war "live" — the invasion of Iraq.

When a scandal is uncovered on "60 Minutes" or a similar U.S. news show, we often see action taken.

When the spotlight of TV scrutiny is focused on a problem in a distant land and there is public outrage, we often see steps taken to correct things. This is the reason that third-world despots fear, and have taken great measures to ban or censor, the press, in general, and TV news in particular.

Does not the fear of exposure keep many on a nobler path?

Often the news isn't pleasant. As the bearer of some unpopular messages TV news has generated many critics. In fact, TV news gets more complaints than any other type of TV programming. Today, of course, we have many sources of news and information available.

Note in the graph below that among college-age students the Internet is now the primary source of news. More than one person in this age group has explained that they can simply get the information faster from the Internet—and often without commercial clutter.*

Note that in the graph below that newspapers are in last place.

Most relied upon souces of news

Although this graph doesn't represent the general population, it may suggest the beginning of a trend. (See also youth and media use.)

A good example of a national newscast that takes a reasoned, in-depth look at the events of the day is "The National Magazine," an hour-long newscast from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Although the U.S. networks have long wanted to expand to one hour to more effectively cover world events, this has been opposed by local stations that felt that they could generate higher ratings by filling the time with their own programming.

The blog article, The Debasement of TV News, has more information on this issue.

* In the early days of the Internet commercial content was virtually non-existent. However, today Internet advertising is almost as prevalent as it is in broadcast TV.

   TO INDEX       Search Site        Video Projects        Revision Information
            Issues Forum        Comment or Problem          Associated Readings        Bibliography
   Index for Modules          To Home Page         Tell a Friend     Tests/Crosswords/Matching