Topics | Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ)

March 15, 2004

What is the news agenda on cable?

Here conclusions must be tentative because the study examined a large number of hours, but only over five days. The extreme frequency of story repetition in a day, moreover, makes the diversity of topics even more limited.

Most striking is what was missing. There were only a handful of programs organized around specialized news beat areas. These included CNN's "Inside Politics" and "Lou Dobbs Tonight" (economics), Fox's "On the Record" (crime) and MSNBC's "Abrams Report" (crime).

On the weekdays we studied, none of the three cable networks produced any programs devoted to in-depth coverage of any other specialized areas, social issues or other domestic or international themes. There are no designated programs, for instance, on healthcare, the environment, arts and culture, religion, travel education or the family. The headline-driven story selection criterion at each cable network determined that these beats were covered only scantily if they did not happen to surface as headline stories.

Topics on Cable News

Percent of All Time

Total CNN Fox MSNBC

Government 29% 22% 28% 31%

Foreign Affairs/Military 22 24 21 21

Defense 2 2 2 2

Domestic 6 7 8 5

Business/Commerce 3 3 3 2

Crime 11 10 12 9

Science/Tech. 1 1 1 1

Celebrity/Enter. 7 7 5 8

Lifestyle 9 9 9 9

Accidents/Disasters 10 13 9 8

Other 3 3 2 4

Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.

In our sample, for example, the limited nature of topics can be seen even more clearly if we look at just one area, domestic affairs. The subcategories of public health, education, the environment, the health care system, and transportation accounted for just 2 percent of the time on the three cable channels. Terrorism accounted for double that.

Here is another way to look at it. If people had watched one of these cable channels for the entire 16 hours, they would have in the course of the full day seen:⁴