Cable news was one of the most-cited sources for election news throughout the presidential campaign. A January 2004 study by Pew Research Center asked people, "How often, if ever, do you learn something about the presidential campaign or the candidates" and offered a list of specific news sources. The survey found that cable news was one of the few news sources people were likely to rely on more than they did four years earlier – 38%, up from 34% in 2000.8 [1]
The late summer and early fall of 2004 showed growth in cable news viewership, but by October the audience had peaked. Indeed, Pew Research Center surveys show that by the final months of the presidential campaign the number of people turning to cable news as a source for election news was flat or had fallen.9 [2] Fox News was the only network to hold steady, cited as a source by 20% of Americans in January and 21% in November. CNN, which had been the most popular cable source in January (22%), was the choice of only 15% of Americans surveyed in November; MSNBC, the choice of 7% in January, was named as a source by 6% in November.
The sharp, partisan divides between audiences for the three cable channels that became clear in 2004 – Fox News clearly the channel preferred by Republicans, CNN viewers more likely to be Democratic – showed up starkly in ratings for the political conventions, when the parties most plainly presented their case to the American public. Those ratings suggest that the division may be more one-sided than it first appears. Republicans clearly migrated to Fox, but audience figures suggest that Democrats were not as clearly aligned with CNN. A more thorough discussion of this phenomenon follows in Public Attitudes.
During the Democratic convention, viewership was distributed fairly evenly (in fact, more evenly than usual) among the three cable channels: CNN (plus Headline News) was the most-watched channel, with 43% of the cable audience over the course of the convention; Fox News was watched by roughly a third (35%) of the audience; and MSNBC, which is typically watched by 15% of the cable news audience, was watched by at least a fifth (22%).10 [3] Cable viewership increased from 4.8 million on the convention's first night to 6.8 million on the Thursday night of John Kerry's acceptance speech.
 |
|
Source: Nielsen Media Research unpublished data
|
|
*Average prime time viewers, July 26 to July 29, 2004.
|
The pattern was remarkably different during the Republican convention a month later. From the first night, Fox News dominated the fight for viewers, attracting 65% of the cable audience that night and maintaining its lead over the next three. In addition, Fox News steadily picked up viewers, going from 3.9 million on the first night (out of 5.98 million cable viewers) to 5.3 million (out of 8.55 million cable viewers) on Thursday. On the final nights of the convention, indeed, it was the single most-watched network, beating the broadcast networks as well as its cable rivals.
 |
|
Source: Nielsen Media Research unpublished data
|
|
* Average prime time viewers, August 30 to September 2, 2004.
|
While total viewership on both network and cable television was roughly the same between the Democratic and Republican conventions, Fox News's surge in viewership during the Republican convention seemed due in part to partisan Republicans' flocking to that network.
 |
|
Source: Nielsen Media Research unpublished data
|
|
* Average prime time viewers, July 26 to July 29, 2004 and August 30 to September 2, 2004.
|
(For a discussion of the substance of cable news convention coverage, see Cable TV Newsroom Investment [7].)
Another factor was probably the general abdication from convention coverage by the broadcast networks. NBC, CBS and ABC each devoted only three prime-time hours to each convention, one hour on each of three nights, and skipped one night of both conventions altogether). That absence of broadcast network coverage contributed to the cable numbers.