News Analysis

When looking over at my viewing log of the midday news, I see that traditional "news" stories were given primary placement, as those were the ones that were covered early in the broadcast, but that they weren't necessarily given the most time. In fact, the beginning of the broadcast moved very quickly, with each story getting just about a minute, give or take a few seconds. In fact, up until the first commercial break, 10 distinct stories were covered in just 8 minutes. Of these 10 stories, 8 could be considered traditional news stories-- many which were local stories, and one that was national news. Also included in the first 10 stories was a look at the weather and an advertising blurb announcing what was to come in the next twenty minutes.

It was striking to me how often the anchors alluded to stories that were coming up in the half-hour. Given that all these stories have so little time devoted to them, it seems strange that they would take 10-15 seconds to highlight a story they will spend a minute on ten minutes from now. It seems that news programs are designed to keep the viewer watching-- they are really fast paced, they often include clips of reporters "on the scene," and they are constantly throwing in "lures" associated with what's to come in their report. The audience of this news program is being treated as if they are watching to be entertained.

The notion of news being entertaining is reinforced by all the attention devoted to news about Hollywood, music, celebrities, and sports. In this particular broadcast, the longest segment (nearly 3 full minutes) was devoted to sports news. Granted, a lot of different sports teams were covered-- but imagine what a different feel it would have if instead the news devoted 3 minutes to national issues. Then, almost the entire last half of this news program was composed of entertainment news-- a good handful of which was connected in some way to ABC or channel five, as they advertised that night's programming and gave one-liners about what stories would be covered on the next news report. Based on the amount of entertainment news they are given, audiences are being positioned to view this information as what is important. Personally, I think it's clear that knowing how much Britney Spears spends each month in child support is not nearly as important or useful as knowing what is currently being discussed in D.C., but at the same time, I almost think it's more aligned with what people want to hear. When people turn on the news these days, they expect entertainment.

I wonder if there is a particular time of day that elicits more entertainment news than other broadcasts. There's definitely a different in ads that play during that time, or at least that's what I would suggest based on my informal and occasional survey of various news programs, but I wonder if there is any significant different in type of news stories.

Something to consider: Does this focus on entertainment news get subdued during times of tragedy? Or does it just appear in different ways?

Outline of News-- Analysis to Follow

The Channel 5 Mid-Day News on Friday, November 2nd, 2007:

12:00: A lone woman anchor opens the show and welcomes viewers.

12:00: news story about an Industrial well accident in Superior, WI

12:02: news story about a murder trial in Minneapolis

12:03: news story of a General Mills recall on frozen pizzas

12:04: weather, beginning with information about Hurricane Noel and then a discussion of local weather

12:05: news story about construction to take place over the weekend

12:05: news story about a car accident involving a MnDot crash cushion

12:06: news story about employment report from WallStreet

12:07: news story about probable writers' strike in Hollywood

12:08: ad promoting Channel 5's website before cutting for a commercial break

12:11: return from commercials, welcome back and a few words on what's to come

12:11: sports news. Gopher Hockey, Women's Soccer, Gopher Football, Gopher Basketball, Timberwolves, Vikings, and the Wild.

12:14: transition to weather-- discussion of wind and a look at the 7 Day Forecast

12:15: weekly special interest story devoted to pets available from the Humane Society.

12:17: break for commercials, with "Jerry Seinfeld's new movie" and "The Boss" up next

12:20: back with ads for ABC's Primetime Line-Up, followed by the local news at 10:00pm

12:21: entertainment news about Bruce Springsteen coming to town, Kelly Clarkson, and "Jersey Boys" at the Orpheum

12:22: entertainment news about Seinfeld's animated "Bee Movie," including clips from an interview with Seinfeld

12:24: entertainment news about Britney Spears's spending habits

12:25: entertainment/ads promoting "Today on Oprah", followed by a look at what stories were coming on the 5:00 local news and the 5:30 CBS evening news with Katie Couric

12:26: brief recap of weather and a farewell from the weatherman and anchor

Advertising for Teens

I was browsing through some of the online versions of teen magazines when I noticed a trend in advertising for teen girls: "beauty" products and sweepstakes. I visited the sites of Seventeen, ym, and Teen. Clearly, the ads on this site are geared toward adolescent and teen girls. The most common ads were those for subscriptions to the magazine and any other they're affiliated with-- such as Teen Vogue and CosmoGirl. (On a side note, all of the websites of these magazines look and feel pretty much the same, so it's no wonder their ads are similar as well.) But besides advertising the magazine itself, by far the most frequent ad was for beauty products-- especially lipgloss and eyeshadow. This came as no huge surprise, but what I found really interesting was the number of ads that display the phrase "You Could Win!" Over half of the ads on the main homepages of these sites had some sort of a connection to a contest. In just one minute of browsing, I was able to find the following: "Win $250,000" next to a picture of their magazine; "Win This" next to a gown, "Text Win!" inserted into a CoverGirl add for lipgloss, and "Enter to Win a $25,000" shopping spree. What is it about teen girls that elicit this kind of ad?

My initial analysis of this "sweepstakes" kind of advertising is that, in order to be effective, the audience must believe they have a chance to win. A younger audience is likely to be more gullible, or at least less skeptical, which would explain why these ads are so prominent in teen magazines. It would be interesting to take a look at magazines for older audiences and compare the frequency of these contests or drawings-- I would guess that as the intended audience ages, the less common "sweepstakes" ads would be. Also, I think it's important to take note of the prizes being offered. In these teen magazines, the prizes are always glamorous-- either in terms of the products (cosmetics, name brand clothes, etc.) or money (often intended for "shopping spree" money). As girls become adolescence, there is an explicit and pronounced focus on physical appearance. Glamour is admired and beauty if sought after. The advertisers for these teen magazines are capitalizing on teen girls' desires to be fashionable, beautiful, and glamourous (are any of those things different?), and what better way to become those things than winning them? Finally, another commonality among these sweepstakes ads is that they're all brightly colored (with bright pink, of course, being especially prominent), they all use big, bubbly text, and they often feature a pretty, smiling teen girl. What does this portray? That when a girl wins these great products (or, really, when they don't win them and buy them anyway), they will become beautiful and happy.