It's well known that CNN has been suffering an exodus of viewers, losing over half their viewership over the past couple of years.
Yet Fox News has not lost viewers, but has increased its viewership slightly.
It's an odd phenomena given that Fox news is clearly biased in their coverage. Mind you, so is CNN according to many.
But I'd suggest it comes down to something much more simple. While Fox may be holding its ground, the rise of alternative media is taking off where CNN left off - a focus on hard news. For those of the under 40 crowd, that's what they are looking for, NEWS.
The simplest way to highlight the difference between mainstream media and alternative media is to take a look at their homepages and the stories they highlight. It becomes very clear why people are turning away from CNN and turning to alternative media.
Let's look at five media sites and their homepage (click on pictures to enlarge):
CNN
Feature stories:
Yet Fox News has not lost viewers, but has increased its viewership slightly.
It's an odd phenomena given that Fox news is clearly biased in their coverage. Mind you, so is CNN according to many.
But I'd suggest it comes down to something much more simple. While Fox may be holding its ground, the rise of alternative media is taking off where CNN left off - a focus on hard news. For those of the under 40 crowd, that's what they are looking for, NEWS.
The simplest way to highlight the difference between mainstream media and alternative media is to take a look at their homepages and the stories they highlight. It becomes very clear why people are turning away from CNN and turning to alternative media.
Let's look at five media sites and their homepage (click on pictures to enlarge):
CNN
- CNN heroes
- Top tablets
- Syrian jet bombs gas station
- Mom smacks down bully
- Political differences in the bedroom
- Rapper's Gangnam style comes to US
- 77 pound weiner dog
- Botox
- Machine shoots popcorn in to mouth
- Jesus is back
- Michael Jackson
- Mars rover touches rock
- dog hates new shoes
- teen X factor
- Goldfish beauty pageant
I mean, are those the 'feature stories' of a serious news organization? Half the stories are about pets! Of the 15 feature stories only one of them could be considered 'news'.
- Fast and Furious scandal
- Obama and muslim uprising
- China and Obamacare
- Obama hardship as child
- Gitmo detainee led attack
- Mitt Romney campaign
- Meaty dog gets help to lose weight
- Obama on Letterman
- How much does Lilo pay for car insurance
So while Fox's bias is clear, as most of their stories are about bashing Obama, at least they have news hooks to them. They only had one 'pet' story.
When you visit fox's site it feels like they are covering news (as biased as that coverage might be).
- Ruling over life-support for child
- 1972 summit series (hockey story)
- The Perfect Runner (banner for tv show on running)
- Gary Betman story (hockey)
- Follow the rise of extreme sports in canada
- Schizophrenia
- CAW negotiations
- MP pensions
So is Canadian mainstream media better than the US? I'd say slightly. Although I was surprised of how much space was given to hockey-related stories. But you can see our social-leaning focus with stories on life support, unions, and health issues.
Thankfully there were no 'pet' stories, or Cosmo-type headlines.
Russia Today (Alternative Media Outlet)
- Pakistani protests
- Air strike in Syria
- Georgia prison torture scandal
- Putin says US is meddling
- Catholics call for Isreal hate crime crackdown
- Nato Russian missle defense negotiations
- IDF war games
- Banner for the Julian Assange Show
Russia Today is funded by the Russian government I believe and is their equivalent of the BBC. All their coverage is in English and tailored to an international audience.
When you look at the stories being covered though they are all NEWS stories. There's no pet stories, or how to have a happy marriage stories, or biased attacks on Obama. It's all just news.
In addition, they have 24/7 television news which can be viewed on the internet (for free). You cannot watch CNN online unless you are a subscriber to one of the cable companies in the US.
I often have RT playing in the background while I'm doing other things. It has a lower budget than CNN obviously, but the reporting is top notch (and I don't notice a Russian bias in the coverage, which one should be wary of given the outlet is funded by Russia).
So it's outlets like this that people are turning to (the Internet-savvy crowd anyway) to get real news about what is going on around the world.
Al Jazeera (Alternative Media Outlet)
- Pakistani protests
- Syrian army raids
- South African miners
- Libyan apologies
- Nationwide strike in India
- France to shut embassies
- Arctic sea ice shinks
- Syria the war within
- Feeding the World
- Bahrain to improve rights record
- Fast and Furious
Al Jazeera is another state-owned outlet which, from the list of stories, is clearly focused on NEWS. Like RT, they also offer a 24/7 television stream which is free to watch online.
Conclusion:
So when people wonder why CNN is losing viewers, I think it starts to become obvious. People who are looking for news, to stay informed about what is happening in the world, would not choose CNN as their first choice for information.
It's important to note that CNN, Fox and CBC all cover the stories that RT and AL Jazeera cover, but they are not what they put front and center. You have to dig in to their sites (to varying degrees) to find the stories.
Now, as to why CNN has chosen to do feature stories on fat dogs and goldfish beauty pageants I couldn't tell you. It makes no sense to me at all. The only explanation is that they think the American public doesn't want hard news but rather wants human-interest stories.
Their ratings however, clearly show that not to be the case.
It will be interesting to see how the media landscape changes over the coming years. The US has been the bastion of news media. They invented the model of the news being an unbiased resource uncovering the truth for the American public.
That clearly has been watered down in favor of infotainment.
Yet outlets in Russia and the Middle East (and yes, alternative media outlets in the US), are doing what CNN use to do, hard analytical news.
It's the oddest phenomena to witness because these supposedly repressive areas of the world are exhibiting far more freedom of speech and genuine journalistic standards than the West who created the Fourth Estate to start with!
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