Fourth Force in the Lens: American TV News Programs

Author: Chief Editor: Wang Wei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-04-01
Features: Excerpt:
Since 1959, the Roper Organization, a U.S. media research company, has been studying American audiences' perceptions of media. It primarily asked two questions: 1. What is your main source of news? 2. Among all news sources, which is the most trustworthy? The answer options were: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and word of mouth. In the survey conducted in 1959, newspapers were the main source of news (67％); television ranked second, accounting for 51％ of the total respondents, followed by radio, magazines, and word of mouth. At that time, newspapers were also a reliable source of information (32％ believed the information published in newspapers was true); fewer than 30％ of people trusted television news. This trend reversed in 1963: television caught up with newspapers and began to become the main source of news for people, and this growth trend continued. Other news media gradually fell into disuse. Around 1979, 67％ of respondents believed television was the main source of news, reaching a historical high in statistical figures, leaving newspapers, radio, and other media far behind. Although television faced strong competitors in later communication technology advancements—especially the advent of electronic computers, which posed unprecedented challenges to the television industry—statistics from 1988 showed that television still held the position of the main source of news for Americans: 65％ of Americans obtained their understanding of current affairs from television. The credibility of television news also improved with its widespread adoption. Starting in 1961, television became the most trusted source of news for Americans. Its irreplaceable visual advantage made television news trustworthiness reach a peak around 1988: 67％ of respondents considered television news credible; only 26％ trusted newspapers, and only 6.7％ trusted radio news broadcasts—while this figure was 12％ in the early 1960s, when television was not yet widely adopted. The results of the Roper Organization's annual surveys reveal that people are more willing to "see" news themselves, "be on" the scene of news, and "believe what they see" (Seeing is believing). This is the very reason that television has stood out among all news media, becoming the most trusted medium for most Americans. The advantages of television news have been maintained for nearly 40 years.
Section: Early News Reporting in the Development of American Television
Television evolved from the strengths, techniques, and traditions of both movies and radio broadcasting. As early as the 1860s, people began experimenting with projecting images on screens to achieve the visual effect of motion. Over the following years, imaginative and creative individuals in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the United States conducted nearly identical experiments, with new discoveries and inventions emerging continuously. By the end of World War II, although inventors had not yet created a television, the principles of television had already been discovered, and the word "television" (television①) had begun to appear in print media.