U.S. television news
Television news originally ran for 15 minutes a night. Today, 24 hour news cable channels include 2 channels of CNN, 1 channel of FOX News, and NBC's CNBC (business reporting) and MSNBC (general reporting).
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2 Television News and Cable Television 3 Modern trends |
Television news, regardless of the origin of transmission, began with Edward R. Murrow. Murrow was a radio news veteran at CBS, having reported live and on location at various locales during World War II. Murrow also pioneered the celebrity interview and the "face off" style interview (often with political figures), in which two or more interviewees respond to one another with the newsanchor(s) acting as moderator.
The half-hour network news segment that originally set the standard for television news in the pre-CNN era was the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Cronkite has won numerous Edward R. Murrow awards for journalistic excellence. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite as anchor ran from April 16, 1962 until March 6, 1981.
The year 1980, which ironically enough was the year Walter Cronkite announced his plans to retire from CBS News, led to the next major innovation in television news: the creation of the Cable News Network, better known as CNN. CNN became the first 24-hour television news network and was a major cornerstone of the fledgling cable television industry.
The rise of satellite communications also contributed to television news, not only because satellites were used by cable television networks, but also because they were an advancement in the sending of raw news satellite backhauls used to send unedited footage to broadcast news studios. Live events and satellite feeds were also naturally complementary in the race to deliver news faster and ahead of competing news organizations.
The current highest-rated news shows are the nightly half-hour world-news broadcasts at 6:30 PM Eastern, 5:30 PM Central on the broadcast-channels ABC, CBS, and NBC, featuring (respectively) Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Tom Brokaw as lead newsanchors.
Starting in the 1990s, regional television news networks such as Northwest Cable News, New England Cable News, and Texas Cable News became popular.Early History
Television News and Cable Television
Modern trends
