In a May 2005 interview with USA Today, the media analyst Tom Wolzien suggested that the cable networks were “cannibalizing“ from each other rather than winning viewers from broadcast.11 [1] He predicted that for cable in general, barring better programming and more investment, the size of the audience would peak in 2009. While it is too early to see if Wolzien’s predictions are true, the case for a diminishing growth in new audience appears valid. Even Fox News’s ability to attract new viewers may diminish as cable systems reach their distribution limits.
According to Nielsen Media Research-NTI, which releases this trend for each January, the total number of cable households in the U.S. as a percentage of all TV-owning households has barely increased in the last five years. The percentage has fluctuated between 67.5% and 69.8% since 2001, barely a 2% difference.12 [2]
Wired Cable Households in Thousands, January of each year
| Year | Cable Households | Percentage of TV Owning Households |
|---|---|---|
|
2001
|
69,490
|
68.0
|
|
2002
|
73,230
|
69.4
|
|
2003
|
74,430
|
69.8
|
|
2004
|
73,860
|
68.1
|
|
2005
|
73,930
|
67.5
|
Source: Nielsen Media Research-NTI, accessed from www.tvb.org [3]
CONCLUSION
CNN Headline News’s success in 2005 is worth considering. It represents the first audience gains CNN has enjoyed after several years of decline. It raises a series of related questions.
Will the network follow through on its vision of two distinct personalities? If so, how different will they be? How close to the edge do CNN managers feel they can go with a particular show in prime time to get ratings? Would they go as far toward political opinion as Bill O’Reilly? Would they go as far toward tabloid as Nancy Grace?
Critics on the left and many in the mainstream dismiss or at least criticize Fox News as being one-sided. As the Atlanta Journal Constitution put it, “Detractors boil down Fox’s rise to a perceived pandering to a disaffected segment of society — read: white middle class — weary of U.S.-bashing here and abroad. They are eager to pin the scarlet letter C, for conservative, on the lapels of on-air personalities, beneath the tiny American flags that a few wear.”13 [4]
Our content analysis in past years suggested that Fox News’s allure was much more complicated than that. First, the style of its anchors and correspondents is more informal than those of other newscasts. Their language is more conversational. Fox News also has a faster pace and uses sound and graphics differently. Those are all stylistic differences that do not have to do with political ideology.
Other differences in style are more political. Fox’s on-air staff people refer to themselves as clearly American. U.S. troops are often “our troops,” and America is “we.” That is certainly not a traditional style for news reporting, and it is beyond debate that Fox News is an American channel. Correspondents and anchors on Fox News are also more prone, than those elsewhere, to offer opinions, but often on non-controversial issues. For instance, we found in our content analysis last year that anchors might say a higher percentage of Iraqi-led soldiers in military actions is “a good thing”.14 [5] That, indeed, is the stated policy of the U.S. and is not an issue in dispute in American policy circles.
CNN, on the other hand, has tried to position itself as an international network, and has always avoided the kind of language Fox News uses. Its success in attaining a non-American image, though, is more questionable. There is little doubt, for instance, that the BBC is a British broadcast. Similarly, foreign journalists say that people think of CNN as clearly American.
Those are not the only differences between Fox News and its rivals. We found in our content analysis last year, for instance, that Fox was more likely to air stories that were positive in tone about the Iraq war than either MSNBC or CNN.15 [6]
Whatever the mix, however, Fox’s appeal is most likely attributable to a number of factors, and a key one is that it has had more success in developing distinct programs built around distinct anchors. Here, CNN and MSNBC are trying to play catch-up. The topic agenda among the three cable news channels is roughly identical.16 [7]