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>> 1 1 Introduction Whose News? Most television news programs are designed to satisfy the perceived appetites of our audiences. That may be not only acceptable but unavoidable in entertainment; in news, however , it is the journalists who should be telling their viewers what is important, not the other way around. —Ted Koppel, January 29, 2006 After leaving the daily grind of the ABC News Division, veteran anchor Ted Koppel tried his hand as a columnist for the New York Times. Prior to his retirement in late 2005, Koppel had spent decades in the news business ; he covered numerous heads of state, natural disasters, major wars, and momentous elections. Rather than focus on the substance of any of these major stories in his first column, Koppel chose instead to discuss a problem he felt could negatively affect election outcomes, public policy, and democratic procedures. In short, Koppel discussed a problem he felt could damage the very fabric of American democracy. This problem is the amount of audience influence over American news programming. Koppel contended that news firms no longer provide the most important and consequential stories to audiences, an approach sometimes called “traditional journalism.” Instead, outlets fill precious space with news designed to appease the audience’s demands. This leaves audiences 2 > 3 This is not to say that journalists, editors, and producers make every news decision with money, profitability, and audience share in mind. But, many news decisions are made for purely economic reasons. And, in order for news content to be influenced by economic concerns, those economic considerations need never be consciously on the minds of newspeople. As media economist John McManus (1995:309) puts it, decisions to report certain stories are “rarely made by consciously thinking through the components of business and journalism standards. . . . Reporters and editors may feel free to report the news as they see fit. But their freedom may seem larger than it is.” News routines and organizational norms are shaped by powerful economic incentives, but newspeople may never know it. Whether the influence of economic incentives over news content is conscious or unconscious, McManus (1992:789–90) argues that it leads to poorer-quality news: Adding viewers who possess the characteristics that advertisers value increases the station’s revenues. The result is an economic pressure to attract as many viewers as possible. . . . National advertisers are paying, not for news quality, but for audience “quality” and quantity. All else held equal, advertisers can be expected to support the program generating the largest audience likely to purchase the products offered. . . . If the premium newscast drew no more of the “right kind” of viewers than a run-of-themill newscast, the station would not earn as great a profit as it might have with a less expensive production. Further, if the premium newscast were like the journalistically acclaimed MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, it might attract a smaller audience than competitors. The loyalty of that small viewership and the esteem with which journalists held the station might be admirable, but not bankable. . . . In television, and only to a slightly lesser degree in newspapers, advertising’s “subsidy” makes a definition of quality based on popularity more profitable than one based on less widely shared professional or craft standards. While there is broad agreement that the structure of economic incentives frustrates good journalism, many questions still remain. How much 4 > 5 news? How much do the media affect the audience’s political opinions and behaviors? The People’s News attempts to enlighten these debates with empirical evidence that will not only illuminate the way media scholars think about the construction of day-to-day news content but also refocus the public debate about the United States’ vastly segmented contemporary news environment. The remainder of this chapter introduces the major debates and concepts that subsequent chapters address in more detail. I begin with a discussion of how economic markets affect news outlets. A robust understanding of the way economic forces shape news content is vitally important given the crucial role news is expected to play in democratic society. Why do economics influence news content? How do economic concerns manifest in day-to-day reporting? What is the extent of this influence? I then introduce the impact news has on democratic society. How does the news contribute to citizen knowledge, encourage good citizenship , and drive public opinion and public policy? How can the news media positively affect society, and can we see evidence of these positive effects? Unfortunately, the compiled evidence will suggest...

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