Discussions of the information society at the end of the century resonate with the prestige and immediacy of news from the earliest days of television to the present. Adding pictures and gradually building in on-site coverage and commentary by distinguished correspondents, television news also celebrated its independence from government control and the limits of print. Over decades, news became the flagship of network prestige—anchormen like Walter Cronkite mediated the memories of a generation dealing with the Kennedy assassinations, the Moon landing and Vietnam. Yet critics have assailed network news for confusing journalism and entertainment, like the O.J. Simpson trial and Clinton sex scandal, adapting to corporate needs and ratings rather than investigation or truth—a charge argued in movies like Network (1976), Broadcast News (1987) and Mad City (1999). Indeed, even the visual elements of television may work against complex non-visual news (like coverage of the Supreme Court).

Meanwhile, network news is losing viewership and money In 1997 only 42 percent of the viewing public watched network TV evening news, down from 60 percent in 1993. The majority of viewers, moreover, are sixty-five and older.

We must be careful, however, to relate news to multiple changing contexts. In the early days of television, seasoned white male journalists delivered “truth,” although later critics may forget that even serious commentators were also involved with celebrity interviews, product endorsements and game shows. While Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame (1959), documenting the plight of migrant farm workers, is taken as a milestone of television news, for example, Murrow also visited stars’ homes in his weekly Person to Person (CBS, 1953–61). And in the years before television reported the medical impact of tobacco, cigarettes were props and endorsements for thoughtful commentators.

Nonetheless, generations including John Cameron Swayze, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley Eric Sevareid and others established a mantle for the authoritative anchor subsequently inherited by long-term network anchors Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather.

The introduction of women as anchors—pioneered by feature interviewer Barbara Walters—and the presence of blacks and other minorities as reporters and anchors respond to perceptions of audiences and issues rather than intrinsic shifts in perspectives or news. Dramatic visual images of civil rights that galvanized America were conveyed by white reporters and camera men; declines in affirmative action or issues of the Third World have been ignored by culturally diverse networks in the 1990s.

It is clear that news coverage does have an impact on how Americans understand and react to events. Hence, television news coverage on politics has sparked constant debates.

Early TV news offered American politics, gavel to gavel. The immediacy of political conventions and the Watergate hearings drew millions to the tube, and TV news was credited with providing a relatively transparent representation of the US political process.

Other Sunday-morning panels also have allowed politicians and newsmakers to discuss serious issues with journalists as hosts and interrogators. Yet, facing telegenic political contests (Kennedy versus Nixon, Clinton versus Dole), one must ask if media are channel or cause. Moreover, with the rise of the political consultants, who are adept in creating media events for the candidates or politicians, TV viewers learn to view politicians as media-generated icons, while images and soundbites avoid more substantive issues.

Television news has been accused of only reporting the horse-race aspects of elections, concentrating on opinion polls and personalities.

In the 1980s and 1990s, network news has expanded into prime time as magazine format shows. These feature network personalities and stories of corporate corruption, personal tragedy medical triumphs (and tragedies), celebrity gossip and natural disasters and have become almost nightly staples. The most senior and popular of this format, Sixty Minutes, has remained among the top ten shows for years since its beginning in 1968.

Local news magazines have tended to concentrate on nostalgic history minority populations and special events. Another extension of the morning/ evening schedule was the introduction of ABC’s Nightline (1980–), which grew from coverage of the Iran hostage crisis into a monographic report after local news. PBS news has always been considered as quality and liberal news; however, researchers have pointed out that the guest list in the famous McNeil/Lehrer News Hour (PBS) often favors white males.

Cable, however, provides the most telling shift in American news. CNN, with its axis in Atlanta, GA, rose to national and international prominence through coverage of the Gulf War via 24-hour news. C-SPAN, as a public service offered by cable providers, offers complete, relatively neutral coverage of events, including sessions of Congress.

Other cable news services have added talk, call-ins and gossip; many like MSNBC, suggest Internet connections for immediate updates, while CNBC promotes finance and business information.

With TV a mature medium, producers, journalists, politicians, as well as the audience all understand how to manipulate or simply use the medium to their advantages. While many in the audience still believe that the evening TV news is authoritative, more are skeptical. The news media, including the print press, and electronic media were attacked by the American public for their handling of the Clinton scandal. In the end, Clinton was not convicted, no matter how big the story was.

Local TV newscasts have faced other difficulties despite strong revenues. While some early newscasts for metropolitan centers drew on extensive station resources and journalistic pools trained in radio and newspapers, others have relied on photogenic announcers and wire services to create their news. Over decades, additions like local color features, movie reviews, medical news and product testing have blurred the dimensions of “serious” news, while sensational crime and weather stories in far-away places in the country will appear on local news if the footage is good. Basic services including news, weather and sports also have been smothered with local boosterism and “happy-talk” formula that wraps every story in banter among the anchors.

Local news stations nonetheless remain linked to network affiliates and practices— acting as frontline and feeders for breaking stories, honing anchors and other personalities and following up on major stories. As they have expanded to 1- or 2-hour broadcasts in the afternoon, some even cover national and global stories before the national reports. National news, in turn, has picked up the features and, in news magazines, the chattier format of the local desk.