Evening Television News Research Articles

ИНФОТЕЙНМЕНТ В ВЕЧЕРНИХ НОВОСТЯХ ВЕДУЩИХ РОССИЙСКИХ ТЕЛЕКАНАЛОВ

This article studies the presence of infotainment style in the evening news programs of the Big Three Russian TV channels: Channel One, Russia-1, and NTV. Infotainment is not only understood as a focus on specific topics such as scandals and show business, but also as an effort to make information programs more engaging and visually dynamic. First, we establish conceptual definitions for infotainment and infotainment topics. Subsequently, we analyze the evening news broadcasts of the three channels aired between March 2021 and September 2023, using selected parameters. The survey reveals that while infotainment style is present in the evening television news, it is not a typical characteristic. Only one of the studied TV channels covered news related to celebrities, and diversification in news format was observed on just two of the analyzed channels. The findings indicate that, at least within the Russian television system, there is no direct correlation between the form of media ownership and the adoption of an infotainment style in the evening news. It can be hypothesized that the personal and professional characteristics of editorial staff members play a significant role in the utilization of infotainment. However, this aspect requires further investigation. Additionally, the survey demonstrates that there is no correlation between program ratings and the presence of infotainment within them.

Local Television News Coverage of the Affordable Care Act: Emphasizing Politics Over Consumer Information.

To examine the public health and policy-relevant messages conveyed through local television news during the first stage of Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation, when about 10 million Americans gained insurance. We conducted a content analysis of 1569 ACA-related local evening television news stories, obtained from sampling local news aired between October 1, 2013, and April 19, 2014. Coders systematically collected data using a coding instrument tracking major messages and information sources cited in the news. Overall, only half of all ACA-related news coverage focused on health insurance products, whereas the remainder discussed political disagreements over the law. Major policy tools of the ACA-the Medicaid expansion and subsidies available-were cited in less than 10% of news stories. Number of enrollees (27%) and Web site glitches (33%) were more common features of coverage. Sources with a political affiliation were by far the most common source of information (> 40%), whereas research was cited in less than 4% of stories. The most common source of news for Americans provided little public health-relevant substance about the ACA during its early implementation, favoring political strategy in coverage.

Opinion Balance in Vox Pop Television News

Opinions expressed by the common (wo)man on the street influence audience judgments about perceived public opinion and even people’s own opinion. While we know from experimental research that the distribution of opinions expressed in vox pop interviews—the balance between pro and contra quotes, for example—influences audiences, little research has actually looked at the distribution of opinions expressed in vox pops in the real world. Are the vox pops shown in news items balanced or not? We address this research gap by analyzing the opinion balance of vox pop statements with a specific focus on political news. We conducted an in-depth content analysis on a random sample of 2000 vox pop interviews in Belgian (Flanders) main evening television news drawn from a total population of vox pop interviews in the period 2003–2013. Results show that in half of the news items in which they are used, vox pops present opinions and that vox pops play an important role in political news. We find that, contrary to our expectations, the opinions expressed in vox pops are unbalanced both in non-political and political news. A large majority of vox pop news items contains vox pop voices that present only one point of view.

Media Uses and Effects in New Democracies: The Case of Poland’s 2005 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections

To what extent are established democracies and new democracies moving closer together in terms of the impact of media messages in electoral campaigns? Drawing on a content analysis of main evening television news on flagship programs over two months during the Polish National Election Study’s two-wave panel study ( N = 1,200) spanning parliamentary and presidential elections in September and October 2005, the authors identify the impact of media use on political knowledge, political participation, and political learning. They demonstrate the positive effect of media use on political knowledge, on participation in a variety of campaign activities other than voting, and on the stabilization of issue positions. Findings support those from recent elections in established democracies. The study suggests that in the context of more highly volatile electorates in the new democracies of East-Central Europe, campaign information in the news media plays a critical role in campaigns and electoral outcomes.

INTER-MEDIA AGENDA SETTING AND GLOBAL NEWS COVERAGE

For several decades, media scholars have attempted to identify the key variables that shape the complicated international news selection process. At the heart of the research lies the question of what make a nation or an international event newsworthy? Research findings point to several key determinants of international news coverage including deviance, relevance, cultural affinity and location in the hierarchy of nations. The current study suggests that the newsworthiness of international events may result from an inter-media agenda-setting process. The current analysis points to significant correlations between the international news agenda of the morning New York Times and the international news agendas of three evening television news programs. The current study argues that inter-media agenda setting should be considered in future studies on the international news selection process.

"Off-line": The 2004 European parliamentary elections on television news in the enlarged Europe

We outline the competitive television news market in the enlarged European Union (EU) and demonstrate the continued importance of traditional media, in particular television, in the context of proliferation in choice of news sources, including on-line news services. Drawing upon a content analysis of the most widely watched evening television news programs in each of the EU countries, we find that on average, EU news in 2004 was more visible in the new member states than in the old member states. The level of coverage in the old member states was slightly higher in 2004 compared to 1999. Looking at individual countries there was considerable variation with some countries (e.g., Greece, Denmark, Slovakia, and Austria) devoting about 20% of the news to the elections and others (e.g., Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic) devoting about 5% or less to the elections.

Television Coverage of the 1999 European Parliamentary Elections

European parliamentary elections are the defining event for political participation in the European Union (EU). Little, however, is known about how recent European parliamentary election campaigns are covered in television news, the most important source of information for most Europeans. We analyzed the main evening television news in 14 EU countries over the last 2 weeks before the 1999 European parliamentary elections (5,477 stories in total). Our results show considerable variation among the EU countries in the amount of coverage devoted to the European election campaign and the visibility given to EU representatives. Using multivariate analyses, we establish that there is more coverage of the European elections on (a) public broadcasting channels, (b) when elite opinion about the EU is polarized, and (c) when citizens are dissatisfied with their national governments. We also find that EU representatives are less visible in the news as a country participates in more European elections. The study provides a baseline for assessing the role and impact of news in future parliamentary elections and offers an explanatory approach to the study of news content.

EU Politics on Television News

Previous research tells us little about the ways in which the European Union is portrayed on main evening television news. We therefore content analyzed 11,722 stories broadcast in main evening television news in five EU countries over an 11-month period in 2000. There was an invisible importance to EU news: although the share of the news devoted to EU affairs was low, when EU news did appear it tended to be more prominent than other political news. We also found that the thematic structure of the EU news was similar across the countries and that EU coverage was not predominantly domestic in most of the countries. Evaluations of the EU were rare, but when they did appear they tended to be negative.

Inaccuracies in Media Coverage of the 1996 and 2000 Presidential Debates

This study compared data from content analysis of the 1996 and 2000 presidential debates with news coverage of those debates. Debates and news coverage were content analyzed for functions (acclaims or self-praise, attacks or criticism, and defenses or refutations of attacks) and topics (policy and character). In both campaigns the news coverage over-represented attacks and defenses but under-represented acclaims. In 1996, the news stories stressed character more than did the debates (and policy less than the debates), but in 2000 the news coverage accurately reflected the proportion of policy and character in the debates themselves. The study of 1996 found scant reporting of the debates in evening television news, compared with newspapers. The 2000 study found that there were more reports of Gore's than Bush's remarks. Finally, the average newspaper story in 2000 only reported 7% of what the candidates said in a debate. Clearly, voters cannot expect to obtain an accurate or complete representation of presidential debates from media coverage.

Framing Politics at the Launch of the Euro: A Cross-National Comparative Study of Frames in the News

This study of the main evening television news programs in four European countries focuses on the framing of news surrounding a major European event, the January 1, 1999, introduction of the common European currency, the euro. We investigated the visibility of political and economic news in general and of the launch of the euro in particular. We found variations across countries in the emphasis on political and economic news, with the proportion of the newscast normally devoted to these subjects ranging from 45% to 60%. Journalists in all countries were more likely to emphasize conflict (rather than economic consequences) in framing general political and economic news. In the coverage of the launch of the euro, there was a greater emphasis on framing the news in terms of economic consequences. The findings are discussed in terms of influences on framing practices internal and external to journalism and the value of the cross-national comparative approach.

Public Opinion in Television Election News: Beyond Polls

This content analysis of national evening television news examines how public opinion was covered during the 1996 presidential general election campaign using a broader definition of public opinion than simply poll results. It reveals that the heavy emphasis on the "horse race" found in poll reporting is not shared in the extensive "people-on the-street" reporting. Instead, people-on-the-street coverage comes closer than poll reporting to providing a public sphere where a wide range of people voice varied attitudes about matters of public importance. The extent to which these reported opinions reflect poll results is also examined.

The English patient

The detention of former dictator Augusto Pinochet in London in mid‐October 1998 has shaken an otherwise complacent Chilean ruling class and its political face, the Concertación government of President Eduardo Frei. Simultaneously it has had a cathartic and unifying effect on a fractionalized Left which is recovering from harsh wounds while rearticulating popular struggle after a trough in activism since the late 1980s. Pivotal to this process has been a strengthened women's movement, radicalized by the systematic misogynist cruelty of the Armed Forces during Pinochet's direct command. The predominantly pro‐Pinochet press has given his detention such complete coverage that even the sacrosanct first half hour of soccer on the Sunday evening television news has had to make way for the diffusion of this symbolic, if not actual, crisis.

Psychosocial Factors and Enrollment in a Televised Smoking Cessation Program

Registrants for a smoking cessation program on the evening television news in the Chicago metropolitan area were compared with other smokers in the population to identify psychosocial factors that distinguished registrants. Telephone interviews were conducted before the intervention with random samples of 641 registrants and 2,398 smokers who regularly viewed the evening news. A nested series of three contrasts compared registrants with (1) smokers who regularly viewed the evening television news on any channel, (2) smokers who were regular viewers of the evening news on the intervention channel, and (3) smokers who were regular viewers of the evening news on the intervention channel and were planning to quit smoking. Registration was associated with a smoker's cognitive appraisal of the quitting process, with registrants distinguished by (1) recognition of a need to act (perceived severity of and susceptibility to lung cancer), (2) high outcome expectancies for quitting as an effective means for health promotion, (3) realistic expectations about the effort required to quit, (4) concern about the burden of lung cancer on significant others and related social influence factors, and (5) motivation to quit smoking. The findings suggest that the effectiveness of minimal-contact intervention programs may be enhanced by targeting smokers according to their psychosocial characteristics and by cognitively preparing smokers to attempt to quit.

Television News: ‘Shockin’ Me Right Outa My Brain'

We sometimes hear early evening television news described as the 'nightly horrors'. This article looks closely at stories about communities at risk to see if there may actually be some connection between television news and the horror genre.

L'Imagerie politique à la télévision: les derniers jours de la campagne référendaire

AbstractThis article presents the results of a content analysis of the late evening television news during the last days of the 1980 Quebec referendum campaign. The analysis seeks to relate the differences in the political imageries broadcast by the four networks studied: SRC, CBC, TVA and CTV. Previous studies, conducted during periods of political activities less intense than those of the referendum, have already underlined differences between the channels according to their language of broadcast and their ownership. The present analysis allows the networks to be differentiated according to these two factors by considering not only the subjects presented but also some nuances in the presentation of the same theme by different networks.

Problem definition and problem solving. A distinction of approaches.

<h3>A Distinction of Approaches</h3> It is an old adage in the world of journalism that nothing sells newspapers as well as a catastrophe. The subset corollary of that principle is simply that "bad" news is more exciting than "good" news. Thus, witness the front pages of the daily newspaper, cover stories for the weekly news magazines, the evening television's news summaries. All about us is the tenor of destruction and dissembling dissent. The flower people call for love; the straight people respond with "kooks," "creeps," and court orders. This process extends beyond the communications media. It has become a practice in legislatures, in the development of political careers, in the reports of blue-ribbon panels and white paper committees. Society's difficulties, discontents, and inequities are repeatedly emphasized and underscored. To this reviewer it appears that many of the people who are charged with the responsibility for directing and administering the health