Cable News Network and the Negative Changes

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to enlighten and explore the evolution of cable news network and its impact on the negative changes in the way news is the process through which news developed, delivered and viewed. In addition, this paper will focus on the 24 hours broadcast of cable news network and its impact on the traditional sources of communicating the news. The 24-hour news networks have largely sustained their popularity in the years following the terrorist attacks like 9/11, as the U.S. has waged war on terrorism. However, even media analysts have expressed surprise at the ratings garnered by the three all-news networks in the buildup to and during the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq. Between February 2003 and the week before hostilities began in mid-March 2003, Fox News's average prime-time viewership jumped to 2.5 million viewers, from 1.69 million (Meikle, Redden, 102).

In less than twenty years from its creation, CNN (or CNN International) had viewers in more than 150 nations around the world. One of CNN's most intriguing concepts is "CNN World Report," a truly international newscast that presents stories from almost every point of the globe. The emergence of CNN also sparked the development or expansion of other international news services, including BBC World, a television service started in 1995 that has grown to reach some 167 million weekly viewers in nearly 200 countries. A second notable satellite channel began within a year of CNN's debut.

Origin of 24 Hour Cable News Networks

By 1997, the cable news wars were in full swing. Fox News and MSNBC both challenged rival CNN for a share of the audience. There were differences in the styles and ideologies of each cable channel, just as there were differences in the three network news broadcasts (Suhekm, 62). Each cable channel had its strengths and weaknesses and was learning from its competitors. Three cable news channels began competing for news audiences in the fall of 1996 when Fox Cable News appeared. CNN, the founded in 1981 and the oldest of the cable news channels, had to change its style to compete. MSNBC, which appeared in the summer of 1996, affiliated with both NBC and Microsoft and drew their resources to compile its news and programming.

As MSNBC debuted in July and Fox Cable News in October, CNN, although profitable, was still struggling with its dilemma of many years (Parsons, 101). When there's no Gulf War or O.J. Simpson criminal trial CNN's ratings, take a big dip to surprisingly low levels. That had happened in the spring of 1996; not encouraging for CNN and a message for MSNBC and Fox Cable News that they had to appeal to more than just the faithful CNN viewers.

At this point in its brief history MSNBC, when it is reporting the news—as opposed to talking it to death or deviating into broadcasting the Imus 6-to-9 a.m. radio show or the part-infomercial The Site at 10 p.m.—is a worthy cousin of NBC News (Parsons, ...