Cable News Channels Research Articles

Exploring Public Perception of News and Citizenship and Its Relationship with News Use

ABSTRACT This survey study (N = 1065) examines Americans’ perception of news and citizenship and its relationship with consumption of news via diverse media—traditional news media, cable news channels and political satire—that include features of news yet differ from one another in their adherence to journalistic norms, such as fairness, accuracy and objectivity, to varying degrees. Findings suggest that Americans still hold high expectations for news to be fair, accurate and objective and value the role of news in our democracy and democratic citizenship, yet have negative assessments of their performance, such that news media fall short of the democratic ideal. These findings may speak to the declining public trust in media and growing perception of media bias.

Cable news advertising: Applying formal analysis to uncover current trends in self-promotional marketing

The emergence of 24/7 cable news channels within the US revolutionized news consumption, offering viewers accessibility beyond fixed broadcast schedules. While the phenomenon began with CNN, competitors quickly emerged, targeting different political ideologies and mirroring the heightened polarization that has altered American society. Cable news channels must market themselves effectively to their audiences through distinctive product differentiation strategies. Understanding these approaches provides insights into information dissemination, political communication, and audience engagement dynamics. This paper aims to conduct a formal media analysis of current self-promotional advertisements across the big three cable news networks within the US to derive insights into contemporary differentiation strategies crucial for monitoring the industry’s technological transition. As the rest of the world has begun to wrestle with increased polarization, this analysis will be relevant to anticipating how non-US news sources use ideology and values to position themselves within highly competitive markets.

How Affective Polarization Deepens the Partisan Divide in US Cable News Use

Abstract: Currently, not only are partisans’ feelings toward Democrats and Republicans sharply divided along party lines, but so too are their choices regarding news media. Regarding this polarization, most studies have considered partisans’ selective use of news outlets as a crucial factor in widening affective polarization. However, insufficient attention has been directed to the potential role of affective polarization in selective exposure. Accordingly, this study seeks to fill this gap by verifying the effect of affective polarization on selective exposure and examining a potential mechanism using two-wave panel data. Our findings demonstrate that the degree of affective polarization is positively related to partisan bias in the credibility judgment of pro-party and counter-party cable news channels. In turn, favorable in-group bias in the credibility judgment of cable news channels has a significant effect on selective exposure to cable news outlets, mediating the effect of individual-level affective polarization on selective exposure. Lastly, we discuss the theoretical implications of our findings.

A look at the GLP‐1 agonists

A couple of years ago, I started exercising at home instead of going to the local Y. I'd typically have a television cable news channel on to keep me company, and was thereby subjected to abundant commercial advertising. Aside from marveling at the remarkably precise targeting of my demographic (old people), I pretty much managed to tune out the content. Recently, however, during more purposeful encounters with the media, I have found myself inundated with discussions of a specific product I had previously only associated with a strikingly annoying jingle: Ozempic.

Frontiers: The Persuasive Effect of Fox News: Noncompliance with Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Cable news channels—and Fox News in particular—affected the extent to which viewers’ complied with experts’ social distancing guidelines early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.

If a Tree Falls in the Forest: COVID-19, Media Choices, and Presidential Agenda Setting

During a time of crisis Americans turn their attention to the news media for critical information about what to expect, who is affected, and how to behave. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, public safety experts warned that the consequences of a misinformed population would be particularly dire due to the serious nature of the threat and necessity of severe individual collective action to keep the population safe. Thus, those elites who possess the power to set the agenda of the conversation bear a huge responsibility for the general welfare. Among the various agenda-setting mechanisms available to the president is daily press conferences which provide a unique opportunity to leverage public exposure, accelerated by the state of crisis. Yet, mainstream media's daily viewership is many times larger than the president's press conference and we explore their narratives surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic through automated text analysis of complete transcripts of national cable, network, and local news. Of particular importance, we characterize the differences in which topics were covered and how they were covered by various cable media sources. Our analysis reveals polarized narratives around blame, racial and economic disparities, and scientific conclusions about COVID-19. The media is influenced by the president's agenda, even for cable news channels that are consumed by audiences that typically do not support him, but we found strong evidence that the media's choices mediate, and ultimately dominate, the agenda-setting abilities of the president's daily press conferences.

I Think; Therefore it’s News! The Convergence of Opinions versus Facts on Cable News Networks

I Think; Therefore it’s News! The Convergence of Opinions versus Facts on Cable News Networks Mark C. Meachem Abstract Research shows that Americans have a difficult time separating fact from opinion. This can lead to misunderstanding, sharing of false information on social media, and a loss of faith in reporting. This paper examined newscasts on the three most popular U.S. cable news channels (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) from 2008 to 2018. While the study did not find the amount of opinions rose consistently, or on all networks, there were some statistically significant changes, especially with CNN. The research also noted that by using specific techniques, the consistent reliance on opinions in a newscast can easily confuse viewers from telling fact from commentary. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/rah.v9n1a1

Partisan Media and Fiscal Policy Choices: Evidence from U.S. Cable News Channels

Partisan cable news broadcasts have a causal effect on the size and composition of budgets in U.S. localities. Utilizing channel positioning as an instrument for viewership, we show that exposure to the conservative Fox News Channel shrinks local government budgets, while liberal MSNBC enlarges them. Revenue changes are driven by shifts in property taxes, a key tool for local redistributive policy. Expenditure changes are driven by public hospital expenditures, an important discretionary public good provided by local governments. We also find evidence that Fox News exposure increased privatization (while MSNBC decreased it). An analysis of mechanisms suggests that the results are driven by changes in voter preferences, but not by changes in partisan control of city governments.

Bordering work in contemporary political discourse: The case of the US/Mexico border wall proposal

In this article, I use a critical discourse analytic approach to investigate how President Trump’s campaign goal to build a wall along the US/Mexico border has been discussed in United States political discourse. The data analyzed are 30 videotaped speeches and other public events which occurred between October 2016 and March 2018. These data are publicly available from the cable news channel C-SPAN’s online video archive. The analysis focuses on the communicative techniques and strategies used to persuade others and justify one’s position in the interactions and events studied. In this article, I show how the border wall proposal is reformulated into a debate about border security, and how diverse ways of referring to persons without approved documentation are used to support arguments on both sides of the debate.

Tracing Media Audience Relationship Through Agenda Setting A Study of Cable News Channels in Pakistan

The aim of this research study was to trace the relationship between media presentations and public priorities. To trace the media and public relationship for media influence on the public through agenda-setting, four issues Pak-US relations, energy crises, and national reconciliation ordinance were studied on two leading news cable channels, The Express and The Geo News Randomly selected news shows and bulletins for a period of one year have been examined to gauge the media agenda while a survey to cable television viewers of two news channels has been conducted separately to check the audience’s agenda on these issues. 156 news bulletins and the same number of prime time talk shows were analyzed through agenda-setting and framing models to gauge media agenda. Results confirmed strong connections between media’s issues salience and the audience’s issue priorities on four understudied issues. Correlations were measured from r +0.66 to r +0.90 with a p-value of less than .001. H1 and H2 have confirmed the strong media influence on the public priorities in ranking the understudied issues.

MEDIA CONSTRUCTION OF CRIME REVISITED: MEDIA TYPES, CONSUMER CONTEXTS, AND FRAMES OF CRIME AND JUSTICE*

AbstractThrough this study, we shed new light on a key line of inquiry for criminologists: the way the media influence the public's understanding of crime and justice. We argue for expanding the lens of studies on the media's construction of crime, moving away from one‐dimensional reactions to crime to an integrated set of frames about crime and justice policy while considering the potential influence of a diverse array of media forms and content. Most critically, this social construction process must be placed in context, specifically, the racial composition in which people consume media. By using two nationally representative surveys matched with contextual data, we identify two forms of media consumption that seem important to understandings of crime: local television news and TV crime dramas. Interestingly, local news seems more important than national news even to perceptions of national crime trends, whereas news consumed over the Internet is not relevant, nor are 24‐hour cable news channels once political views are taken into account. Television news viewers are also more likely to support tougher crime policies. Importantly, context matters: The influence of television news and crime dramas on perceptions of crime is strongest among White respondents who live near larger numbers of Black neighbors.

CBSN: The Streaming Cable News Channel and the Argument for More Millennial-Focused Streaming News Networks

Thanks to the internet and steaming video options, traditional cable news channels have seen a decline in viewership among millennials. In 2014, CBS launched CBSN, an online streaming channel that offers coverage of news streamed to mobile devices and internet-connected television sets. The goal of this article is to argue that the traditional cable news channels should invest in creating similar services aimed at millennials that offers perspectives and coverage of the news from a presentation format that would appeal to this generation.

Framing responsibility for depression: how U.S. news media attribute causal and problem-solving responsibilities when covering a major public health problem

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes how major U.S. print and broadcast news media framed depression causal and problem-solving responsibilities at individual and societal levels over the past three decades. Results from the content analysis showed that the media placed more causal and problem-solving responsibilities on individuals than the society. However, references to societal solutions increased moderately over time. Organizational differences emerged in news attribution of responsibilities, as print media presented more individual-level causes while broadcast media focused more on solutions at both individual and societal levels. Additionally, local newspapers put more problem-solving responsibilities on individuals than national newspapers, while a cable news channel allocated more time to the discussion of overall depression responsibilities than network TV. Findings are discussed in the context of cultural orientations, organizational constraints, changing practice and trends in health news reporting, and the broader political/social environment in which the news media operate. Practical implications for health journalism, mental health communication and advocacy, and public health policy-making are discussed.

Tourism, crime and risk perception: An examination of broadcast media's framing of negative Aruban sentiment in the Natalee Holloway case and its impact on tourism demand

The results of a mixed method study conducted on media coverage in the aftermath of the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba confirmed the hypothesis that prolonged negative media coverage was responsible, at least in part, for the decline in U.S. tourist arrivals to Aruba, which began in 2006. Prior to 2006, Americans accounted for approximately 73% of tourism demand in Aruba and current statistics indicate the percentage has dropped to 58%. Protracted media storms, which often follow a crime or murder, can be devastating to countries that rely on tourism as the largest economic driver. Americans were heavily exposed to the Natalee Holloway case by far reaching cable and network news channels which, combined, covered the story more than 950 times during the first six months of coverage. The content analysis revealed the framing of negative Aruban sentiment by the media. The often contentious relationship between the media and foreign justice systems spurred by allegations of police misconduct and the shrouding of Aruban culture in mystery characterized much of the news content. A least squares regression revealed that prolonged negative media coverage impacted the decline in U.S. tourist arrivals to Aruba. Previous studies have noted that risk perception and fear of crime plays a role in the tourist travel decision. This study proposes an additional factor; the American public's outrage at Aruba's inability and perceived unwillingness to bring the prime suspect to justice. Implications of the study are that in the aftermath of a serious crime against a tourist recovery is possible; however destinations should have a plan in place for dealing with the home country's media and make regular attempts to communicate openly to avoid negative coverage.

Revisiting the Protest Paradigm

The emergence of a national “Tea Party” movement in the United States stimulated much media commentary regarding the movement’s origins, goals, participants, and even temperament. Unlike political movements of the recent past, the Tea Party stands starkly to the right. This study examines nightly cable news coverage of this movement by using key frames associated with the “protest paradigm”—the tendency for media to marginalize movements by drawing attention away from core concerns raised by such movements. We ask whether the protest paradigm can be applied to a right-wing movement and whether such application varies by the ideological leaning of a given source. That is, do cable news channels use frames in ways consistent with their respective ideological hues? We draw on a representative sample of stories regarding the national movement from the most viewed nightly news programs on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, with the Associated Press as a reference point. Results show significant differences across sources in issue and marginalization frame use. Although utilization of marginalization frames is popular among ideological channels, traditional news sources are not immune from using these devices.

Argentina: Back to Peronism

Argentina: Back to Peronism

The ‘New’ News as No ‘News’: Us Cable News Channels as Branded Political Entertainment Television

Contesting the journalism frame as the basis for assessing US cable television news channels, this article argues instead for a focus on the branding and product differentiation practices that shape news content in the highly competitive cable marketplace. Politics, in particular, has become the central identifying brand marker, as cable news channels transform the raw material of public life into a variety of entertainment performances. The construction of politics is thoroughly informed by commercial strategy and brand appeal, as politics is brought to life through performances that constitute political reality for viewing audiences.

Climate on Cable

This study examines climate change coverage on the three major cable news channels and assesses the relationship between viewership of these channels and beliefs about global warming. Evidence from a content analysis of climate change coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC during 2007 and 2008 demonstrates that Fox takes a more dismissive tone toward climate change than CNN and MSNBC. Fox also interviews a greater ratio of climate change doubters to believers. An analysis of 2008 survey data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults finds a negative association between Fox News viewership and acceptance of global warming, even after controlling for numerous potential confounding factors. Conversely, viewing CNN and MSNBC is associated with greater acceptance of global warming. Further analyses reveal that the relationship between cable news viewership (both Fox and CNN/MSNBC) and global warming acceptance is stronger among Republicans than among Democrats. That is, the views of Republicans are strongly linked with the news outlet they watch, regardless of how well that outlet aligns with their political predispositions. In contrast, Democrats don’t vary much in their beliefs as a function of cable news use. This asymmetry suggests that some Republicans, who as a group tend to be predisposed toward global warming skepticism, are less skeptical when exposed to information on the reality and urgency of climate change.

Promotional Practices of Cable News Networks: A Comparative Analysis of New and Traditional Spaces

In an integrated media environment where news networks seek synergistic opportunities for their parent companies, news content is increasingly susceptible to promotional influence. A comparative content analysis of new and traditional news spaces on U.S. cable television news networks Cable News Network, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel examined the video screen space and the news crawl, or “ticker,” space. Findings reveal that, proportionally, more promotional content occurs within the traditional video content space when compared to the ticker space. However, it was also shown that the ticker acts as a general branding agent for 2 of the 3 networks. Content dispersion also suggests a unique “content identity” for each news brand. The study found no evidence of “covert” promotion for synergistic gain—a positive result for news consumers.

A structural hermeneutics of The O’Reilly Factor

There has been a significant rise in opinion and talk-based programming on American cable news channels since the mid-1990s. These news analysis programs are often politically partisan in their interpretive approach. This article examines one of the most prominent and popular of these shows, The O’Reilly Factor using the theoretical tools of structural hermeneutics. The program produces a radically simple and partisan schema for interpreting the news, but to do so it relies on the constructed persona of the host, a complex underlying meaning structure formulated around binary oppositions, and a number of rhetorical techniques. The show simplifies, but is not itself simple. To simplify the news in a way that suggests partisan conclusions that still seem relevant rather than cartoonish, individual episodes and segments of the show frame issues in terms of a meaning structure that leads strongly to partisan conclusions, but affords an appearance of the reasonable consideration of diverse views. It is suggested that this kind of deep analysis of meaning structures is important for making sense of how news analysis programs and mediated partisanship function as a cultural system.