How 9-11 Changed the Evening News

HOW 9-11 CHANGED THE EVENING NEWS
[SOURCE: Journalism.org]
Looking back five years later, how did 9-11 change the news? If the network evening news is any proxy, the attacks of September 11th 2001 in Washington and New York and the wars that resulted have led to increased coverage of foreign policy and global conflict on the network evening news, but less coverage of domestic issues, according to data from ADT Research’s Tyndall Report, which monitors those newscasts. The mix of traditional hard news and feature of lifestyle coverage, meanwhile, has remained virtually the same on the evening newscasts. Those are the findings drawn from examining the four years of network newscasts prior to 2001 (1997 to 2000) and the four years since (2002 through 2005) according to data generated for the Project for Excellence in Journalism by ADT Research, which publishes the Tyndall Report. The number of minutes devoted to coverage of foreign policy was up 102%, according to ADT's data. Coverage of armed conflict rose 69%. Coverage of terrorism rose 135%. At the same time, there has been a serious decline in reporting about domestic issues. Coverage of crime and law enforcement dropped by half (47%). Science and technology coverage fell by half (50%). Coverage of issues involving alcohol, tobacco and drugs dropped 66%. A rise in foreign coverage may not surprise anyone. U.S. troops are currently fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The issue of global terrorism is the new question of our times. It may dictate the outcome of the 2006 midterm elections and define the Bush presidency. What is less obvious is the effect of the shift in coverage on the overall tone of the newscast. For instance, the balance between reporting-driven “hard news” and softer features, interviews, and commentaries remained virtually unchanged after 9-11. The newscast minutes devoted to hard news increased by a mere 2 % in the years after the attacks while the airtime given to softer coverage decreased by only 5%.
http://www.journalism.org/node/1839