Influence of Media Logic
I have been noticing that there are a number of articles questioning the relevance of network news since tonight is Tom Brokaw’s last broadcast as the NBC Nightly News anchor.
The Echo Chamber documentary focuses on the network news because of the influence that the media logic of the electronic medium of news has on the national political discourse...
QUESTIONING THE RELEVANCE OF ABC, CBS and NBC
MEDIA LOGIC
QUESTIONING THE RELEVANCE OF ABC, CBS and NBC
Reflecting on the relevance of the network news, Newsday’s Verne Gay writes:
"There's no particular logic to why these shows even exist at all right now. A scant 21 minutes in length, the three nightly newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC are filled with feature stories that an intrepid reader or viewer can get a hundred other places, while each program is topped with only five or 10 minutes of hard news."
Tim Goodman says, "Network news is a dinosaur. Period." He continues by saying:
"As much as network news people love to say their pool of viewers hovers around 30 million, how many people do you know who watch the networks instead of CNN, MSNBC, Headline News or Fox News? Challenger explosion, Gulf War, O.J. trial, Diana -- pick your cliche moment for the ascendancy of cable news, but ultimately it doesn't matter. People switched.
"And when they did -- followed by switching to Internet news sites, blogs, whatever -- another layer of importance was stripped off the patina of the network news."
What Goodman says is certainly true in the case of breaking news stories, but there are still a lot of people who watch the network newscasts -- so I wouldn’t dismiss the impact on public awareness that these newscasts can have.
Investigating the network news can provide a lot of insight into the media logic that dominates both network and cable news.
MEDIA LOGIC
David Altheide’s wrote an article in the Politic Communication journal titled "Media Logic and Political Communication." He points out that politicians closely study the editorial practices of the electronic media, and then tailor their communications strategies in order to fit within this media logic. Commercial television drives the national political discourse, and commercial television is driven by popular culture.
In the end, ‘the public institution’ demands to be entertained, and both the network and cable television newscasts obediently comply and serve up a healthy diet of infotainment.
The media logic of the electronic news media have a significant effect on what does and does not become news. This means that the network and cable newscasts have a very significant influence on the communication strategies of the White House, and therefore the overall scope of the national political discourse.
