Changing Definitions of News

Abstract

Is there really a trend toward entertainment as news? If there is, what form does it take? We decided to find out by conducting a two-part content study of the so-called traditional mainstream national news media that examined what topics it covered and what was the emphasis of those stories. One part of the study compared coverage in newspapers, nightly news and news magazines over a 20 year span. The second part looked at a larger universe of news media, including all the prime time network news magazines, over a seven week period in 1997 to identify what audiences are getting today. In all, the study, conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Medill News Service Washington Bureau, examined 6,020 stories in 16 news outlets ranging over a span of 20 years.