Sensational: A Comparison of Content and Presentation Styles of the 60 Minutes
and Dateline NBC Television News Magazines
by Patrick J. Sutherland
Second Year Doctoral Student
E.W. Scripps School of Journalism
Ohio University
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 536
Bethany, West Virginia 26032
Phone: (304) 829-4860
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Sensational: A Comparison of Content and Presentation Styles of the 60 Minutes
and Dateline NBC Television News Magazines
The topic of sensationalism creeping into the content of mainstream American
network television news programming has received sporadic attention by both the
national press and academic researchers in the last two decades. (1) Recent
examples of controversial television news coverage include the O.J. Simpson
criminal and civil trials; the Jon Bennet Ramsey murder case, the murder of
Ennis Cosby, and the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicides. While it is common
knowledge that the major television networks' nightly news programs have been
steadily declining in overall ratings, their television news magazine programs
have proliferated and have garnered high ratings and revenues. (2) In his study
of television uses and gratifications, Alan Rubin found that there are complex
factors comprising viewers' motivations. (3) Rubin concluded that there are two
main types of television viewers. The first type watches television out of habit
and for entertainment purposes. The second main type of television viewer uses
the medium to learn about events and people. In their 1992 study of the hard and
soft news content of the national network TV news programs, David Scott and
Robert Gobetz note that play theory describes the consumption of news as a
voluntary act that is satisfying in and of itself. (4) They stated that both
play theory and uses and gratifications theory support Wilbur Schramm's
argument that news consumption can be guided by pleasure motives. On the
seemingly ubiquitous entertainment focused medium of television, are television
news magazine programs more entertainment or news oriented?
Perhaps the 1995 incident in which CBS's 60 Minutes admitted to secretly
videotaping an individual (although that video did not actually air) and the
November 17, 1992 Dateline NBC segment titled "Waiting to Explode," are two of
the more memorable
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examples in which network television news magazine producers and reporters have
been criticized for using sensationalistic journalism approaches. (5)
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Carl Bernstein has been one of the outspoken
critics of what he calls "trash" journalism which encourages cynicism, untruth,
titillation, and distortion. (6) While Bernstein admits that sensationalism and
gossip have always had a
role in newspapers, he argues that trash TV programs allows an "Idiot Culture"
to triumph in the America of the 1990s.
Teresa Keller stated that the topic of trash TV began being seriously
addressed in the United States in 1988, when ABC-TV's Jeff Greenfield addressed
the 1988 Radio and Television News Directors' Association meeting. (7) Keller
defined trash TV as consisting mostly of talk programs and news magazines such
as the recently cancelled A Current Affair, and the syndicated program Inside
Edition. Keller wrote that the following elements help to define trash TV; sex
and violence content, confusion between news and entertainment, hyped language,
music which connotates fear, uncertainty, and anticipation, and re-creations.
She also cited examples of ABC, CBS, and NBC allowing magazine shows to
occasionally use re-enactments which changed the standards of TV news. (8)
The purpose of this study is to attempt to measure any changes in the
presentation style and content of relatively early editions of the CBS's award
winning 60 Minutes news magazine, compared to more modern day 60 Minutes
programs. And to also compare the content and style of 60 Minutes with that of
the relative newcomer Dateline NBC which began airing in 1992. Of particular
interest in this study are story presentations which have been defined by past
research as being entertainment oriented and sensationalistic.
Literature Review
Graham Knight's 1989 article on tabloid television news identified tabloid
television journalism as a distinct genre. (9) Knight wrote that TV
tabloidism's roots can
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be found in earlier scandal sheets, the sports press, the "yellow" journalism of
the nineteenth century and the muck-raking journalism of the early twentieth
century. Knight stated "Tabloid still operates within the broad organizational
and representational parameters of news production; its distinctiveness is one
of topic, accent, emphasis and
style." (10) Knight wrote that tabloid TV's staples are crime, corruption, and
scandal. He stated that tabloid TV generally eschews coverage of weighty
political and economic issues. Knight concluded that there are two main
characteristics of tabloid TV. First, there is considerable emphasis on coverage
of events and issues which concern moral disorders and consequent effects.
Tabloid's focus is more on the immediate issues of deviance, conflict, and
threats to or disruption of, everyday life. This focus on the part of tabloid TV
news, has led to its reputation for exaggeration, over-dramatization, and to its
appealing to the prurient and to sensationalism. (11) The other main
characteristic of tabloid TV, according to Knight, is the emphasis on the
"subjective" in coverage. He cited as an example, that almost every tabloid TV
human interest story focuses on how an individual
feels and reacts, while also playing up the presence and personality of the
reporter. These techniques have earned tabloid TV news its reputation for bias
and trivialization.
Mark Harmon defined sensationalism in television news coverage as coverage of
violent crime, disasters, and accidents. (12) William Davie and Jung-Sook Lee
wrote that while the Radio-Television News Directors Association's Code of
Ethics encourages members to reject sensationalism in any form, the themes of
sex and violence are prevalent. (13)
Knight wrote that tabloid TV began in the U.S. in the early 1970s with the
happy talk formats of local TV news operations in New York, Los Angeles, and
Chicago. He
stressed that the differences were then not so much in style and content as in
differences in detail and in the way style and content are combined. (14) Knight
stressed that tabloid TV represents a blurring between fiction and non-fiction.
He stated that, partially due to
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technological advances, what he called "representation" increasingly overwhelms
the object of a news story in a deluge of images and words. (15) In other words,
the "real" is overwhelmed by representation. Knight stated that tabloid TV is
absorbed with the "now" and takes an a historical perspective to many of its
stories. Basic tabloid techniques include use of the present tense and use of
colloquialisms such as the words "cops" and "feds." Another important tabloid
technique is to tell the story through actuality pictures and sound. (16) Knight
wrote that there is a distinct flavor of populism in tabloid TV. In short,
tabloid TV news is an ideology of feelings.
In 1990, Elizabeth Bird noted that journalism of any kind involves
storytelling. (17) She stated that tabloid newswriters defend their approach of
use of a formulaic style as an approach used by other reporters. Tabloid
writers, according to Bird, state that they find
the "story" within a event and shape it to fit a particular construction of
reality. Bird wrote that print tabloid reporters tended to abdicate credibility
responsibility to their sources. She wrote that tabloids stress entertainment
over information. Bird noted that "straight" reporters are torn because they
realize that they have to be entertaining or they'll lose their audience. (18)
David Scott and Robert Gobetz wrote that "Whetmore indicated hard news is
factually based while soft news is background information including opinion and
color." (19) Their 1992 study was done to determine whether TV network news
programs had increased their coverage of soft news between 1972 and 1987. The
researchers found that, while the overall proportion of soft news remained
relatively small at around 10 percent of all news, there was an incremental
upward trend in the use of soft news during that period. Scott and Gobetz
concluded that ". . . . it is possible to build a newscast that is newsworthy
by definition with stories that emphasize human interest values." (20)
Bert Briller stated that it is getting harder to tell the media apart due to
the blurring of lines between TV news and entertainment. (21) Briller cited the
use of network TV news
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anchor people as anchors or co-anchors of network news magazine programs, as a
move that has raised the status of TV news magazine programs.
In his 1993 Journalism Monograph, Michael Curtin wrote that even the pre-cursor
to today's TV news magazine programs, the TV documentaries of the 1950s and
1960s, were expected to be entertaining in order to garner high ratings. (22)
Curtin stated that:
Indeed, (CBS) executive producer Don Hewitt touts himself as the
inventive genius behind the introduction of narrative style and
claims that this innovation was a reaction against documentary
conventions of the early 1960s . . . ."I said to myself, 'I'll bet
if we made it multisubject and we made it personal journalism--
instead of dealing with issues we told stories; if we packaged
reality as well as Hollywood packages fiction, I'll bet we could
double the rating.'" (23)
Curtin wrote that these programs were expected to create an illusion of
"realism." He concluded his monograph by asking if TV news is not strictly
factual anymore, why does it strain so hard to present the illusion that it
mirrors reality?
David Schoelle wrote that TV news has consistently evolved in a direction that
dovetails with the tabloid form. (24) He stated that like all mass commodities,
television as a cultural commodity is suffering from a degradation of quality.
Schoelle agrees with Knight that the tabloid TV news form combines fiction and
non-fiction within a continuum of effects. Schoelle wrote that tabloids fragment
different fiction and non-fiction genres and eventually draw the viewer into the
blurred product.
Dwight Dewerth-Pallmeyer and Paul Hirsch performed an exploratory study of the
organizational structures of syndicated tabloid news magazines compared to the
more traditional network news magazine programs. (25) The authors noted that a
whole new genre of TV news programs developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s
with labels such as infotainment, tabloids, and trash TV. They noted that media
critics had begun charging that infotainment techniques had begun seeping into
standard broadcast journalism shows. Dewerth-Pallmeyer and Hirsch wrote that
most programs did not have rigid criteria for
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selection of news stories. Most producers, however, stressed the need to attract
an audience. At the organizational level of analysis, it was found that most
program staffs cited goals of obtaining adequate ratings and enlightening the
viewers. Success was measured via ratings and the in-house determination of the
quality of each program. The researchers concluded that viewers should not be
surprised when seeing traditional news
magazine programs using recreations and/or sexy program topics. They also wrote
that it should be no surprise to find tabloid programs copying successful news
show formats.
Kevin Stoker reported on a systems analysis of news organizations. (26)
He wrote that since news magazine programs cost the networks half as much money
to produce, high ratings for such shows translate into high profits. Stoker
noted that NBC was targeting its Dateline program at a younger audience and that
it was initially a joint
production of the NBC news and entertainment divisions. (27) Stoker wrote that
"News organizations openly create, manage, and change reality in the same way
other organizations perform the same tasks in less conspicuous ways." (28) The
researcher used
the November 17, 1992 Dateline "Waiting to Explode," segment as an example of a
lowering of network TV news standards. NBC apologized to General Motors for a
misleading demonstration showing a GM pickup truck exploding. He wrote that "In
the case of the "Dateline" piece, the producer risked violating professional
standards in an effort to make the product more competitive." (29)
James Marra and Maria Grabe defined tabloid news as being a hybrid between
fiction and highbrow, or traditional news. (30) Marra and Grabe concluded that
the Hard Copy program genre type employs a combination of strategies and
techniques which are becoming an essential component of network TV programming.
(31)
Joseph Russomanno and Stephen Everett studied the blurring of boundaries
between TV newscasts, news magazines and tabloids. (32) They noted that the
relatively recent proliferation of network TV news magazines has seen an
increase in the accusations
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of sensationalism. (33) A definition of tabloidism, which they found
conceptually useful, was "sensationalized trivia, pandering to a craving for
amusement and voyeurism, instead of providing facts needed for good
citizenship." (34) Russomanno and Everett noted that the word tabloid applies
not only to content but to style. The researchers constructed a coding
instrument based upon, in part, previous research done by Elizabeth Bird and
Philip Weiss (35). The researchers performed a factor analysis on 20 attribute
measures and in order to achieve a simple structure identified four main factors
as, objectivity, scandal, sensational, and hope. (36)
Russomanno and Everett found that tabloid programs tended to reflect more
"tabloid" elements in every factor category cited above except for "dramatized
hope." They concluded that differences between the tabloids and news magazines
do exist although they are less pronounced than differences between tabloids and
regular newscasts. One surprising finding from their research was that CBS's 60
Minutes rated near the top in the scandal factor. They wrote:
To claim that "60 Minutes," long considered a bastion of broadcast
journalism, is more scandal-driven than are any number of other
programs down the list might raise eyebrows in many circles.
However, the coded items loading upon this factor included those
which measured whether a story dealt with scandals and unofficial
charges, and whether coverage invaded one's privacy. In spite of
its predominantly positive reputation, "60 Minutes" has achieved
its standing, in part, by covering many stories that fit this
description and by utilizing ambush journalism techniques. (37)
60 Minutes, however, ranked favorably in all of the other factors.
Russomanno and Everett concluded that while the lines separating network
newscasts, news magazines, and tabloid television programs may be blurring, they
do remain largely intact. (38) They found that while news magazines do remain
distinct from tabloids, the differences may be blurring somewhat.
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Research Questions
Based upon the literature review, two main research questions were posed.
First,
does the relatively "new" network TV news magazine Dateline NBC which targets
younger TV viewers, feature more entertainment oriented segments and more
sensational stories, than a more established network TV news magazine such as 60
Minutes? Also, considering
the proliferation of network TV news magazine programs since the early 1990s,
has the award winning and highly rated CBS news magazine 60 Minutes changed to a
more
entertainment oriented style when compared to 60 Minutes programs from
1978-1980, some 15 years earlier?
Methodology
A content analysis of a total of six years of selected television news
magazines programs was performed. In selecting the samples for this study, the
researcher was interested in establishing a baseline of content and presentation
style from a network TV news magazine program prior to any real or perceived
influences of the tabloid TV news magazine programs of the 1980s and 1990s.
Three years of transcripts from 60 Minutes programs from 1978-1980 were
selected. Another factor in selecting samples for this study was any long-term
adjustments made by network news magazines in content and style due
perhaps to, among other factors, increased competition and as a result of the
scandalous November 1992 segment of Dateline NBC titled "Waiting to Explode."
Three years of transcripts from segments, airing 1993 through 1995, from both
Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes were examined.
The unit of analysis was the transcript of each news magazine program segment.
A total of 329 segments over the total of six years were analyzed. The coding
instrument was composed based upon instruments used in past content analyses
with some slight modifications made for the TV news magazine genre. Guido
Stempel, in 1985, modified
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the Deutschmann coding categories for his study of story selection in nine
national media in the United States. (39) General content categories of
serious/informational versus soft/entertainment were developed based upon
previous research in this area by Bird (40), and from an article by John Pauly.
(41) Pauly wrote:
American journalists consider serious professional work as that
which informs rather than entertains its audience. Journalists
articulate this distinction across a variety of practices and discourses.
The preference for hard news to feature stories (which for so many
years was in part a preference for the male news work of politics
and business as opposed to the soft feminine news work of
"social" reporting) rests on the information-entertainment distinction. (42)
TV news magazine presentation styles were coded according to guidelines
previously published by Dan Nimmo and James Combs in their research of network
news. (43) These slightly modified coding guidelines were as follows; the
"elitist/factual" style of TV news presentation was characterized as being
composed of an unemotional delivery, recounting of facts-events, verifiable
information and interpretive information presented so that the audience can make
rational judgments. The "ignorant/didactic" style of presentation consists of,
factual information stripped of all its complexities, news divided into small
comprehensible segments, expressed in non-technical language, with comprehension
being
the central goal, trading off precision and sophistication. The
"tabloid/sensationalistic" style of presenting TV news was defined as, stressing
violence, sex, and human interest matter,
stories about celebrities and/or ordinary people plagued by wrenching problems
(and sometimes experiencing great joy), the language is hyped, coverage of who,
what, and where is emphasized, the facts are unclear, and there is emphasis on
the arousal of emotions and empathy. See the Appendix for copies of the coding
sheet and coding instructions.
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Intercoder reliability, established on the basis of agreement ranged from 83%
for story content classification to 89% for segment and style type. Overall
coder reliability for this study was 87%. (44)
Results
A Spearman's Rho rank correlation analysis was performed on the modified
Deutschmann content category listing outlined in Tables 1 and 2 on pages 11 and
12. In terms of 1993-1995 comparison between the network news magazine programs
Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes on CBS, it was found that the NBC program had a
significantly greater emphasis on stories about crime and popular amusements.
The CBS news magazine put a greater emphasis on stories concerning public health
and welfare, on politics and government acts, and on war and defense issues.
Both programs rated high on the general human interest category of news stories
which Scott and Gobetz categorize as "soft news content." (45) When comparing
1978-80 and 1993-1995 60 Minutes' content, the crime category ranked first in
the earlier versions of 60 Minutes, while most other categories remained
consistent across the two time periods.
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A Chi-Square analysis was performed and the analysis shows that the three
programs differed in content types at a statistically significant level. See
Table 3.
In the 1993-1995 time period, 60 Minutes aired approximately one-third more
serious news segments in its news magazine than did the NBC program. Dateline
NBC and the CBS program aired approximately the same number of
"soft/entertainment" segments in that time period. 60 Minutes remained
consistent as to the amount of "serious/informational" segments across the time
periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995, while the proportion of soft/entertainment news
segment increased by about 20 percent in the latter time period. A year-by-year
breakdown of TV news magazine content shows a drop in total serious segments
between Dateline NBC and 60 Minutes combined from nearly 49 percent in 1993 down
to 40 percent in 1995. Chi square = 3.94 df =1 p < .05.
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Table 4 shows the statistically significant differences in segment presentation
style among the TV news magazines studied.
During the 1993-1995 time period, almost one-half of the 60 Minutes story
segments were presented in the elitist/factual style. Slightly less than
one-third of the Dateline NBC segments were presented in this style. Both news
magazines presented about 40 percent of their stories in the ignorant/didactic
style. The NBC program presented 25 percent of its program segments in the
sensationalistic/tabloid style, while the CBS program produced 10 percent of its
segments in this manner. During the 1978-1980 time period, 60 Minutes aired 20
percent more elitist/factual style segments than it did in the 1993-1995 period.
When combining the NBC and CBS magazine segments in the 1993-1995 period and
comparing them against the 60 Minutes programs from 1978-1980, the more modern
day news magazines aired 36 percent of their stories in the elitist/factual
style, 45 percent in the ignorant/didactic style and 19 percent in the
sensationalistic/tabloid style. This compares to
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the 1978-1980 breakdown of 59 percent elitist/factual, 34 percent
ignorant/didactic, and seven percent sensationalistic/tabloid style. Chi square
= 16.49 df= 2 p < .01
Discussion
This study found some support regarding the first research question which was,
does the Dateline NBC program feature more entertainment and more sensational
stories than a more established TV news magazine program such as 60 Minutes on
CBS? The content analysis confirms that the NBC program has a significantly
greater sensational or tabloid like presentation style. Concerning content,
however, while the CBS news magazine definitely presented a greater proportion
of serious news stories, the percentage of entertainment oriented segments was
about equal, at about 30 percent for both, for the 1993-95 time period studied.
This content analysis also provided limited support to the question of whether
the CBS news magazine adopted a more entertainment oriented style from 1993-1995
when compared to 1978-1980. 60 Minutes has made some limited changes in both
content and in presentation style during the two time periods studied, however,
the basic content and presentation style of the program appears to be consistent
for the time periods studied. The CBS news magazine has slightly increased the
number of entertainment oriented segments in its more modern version and the
program has curtailed its elitist/factual presentation style somewhat when
compared to its output from 1978-1980.
Richard Campbell quoted 60 Minutes inventor and producer Don Hewitt as saying
"60 Minutes has single-handedly ruined television. No one can report news today
without making money." (46) Hewitt, according to Campbell, estimates that 60
Minutes earns over $70 million a year for CBS. Hewitt and others at CBS describe
the 60 Minutes reporting style as a collection of morality plays and describe
the program segments as 13 minute detective dramas with the reporters as star
players. (47) Hewitt stated that there is a fine
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line between show business and the news business and that the trick for a
reporter is to step-up to the line but not go over it.
This study has shown that the TV news magazine content and presentation style
between 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC did differ to a significant extent between
1993 and 1995. The content analysis also appears to confirm the conventional
wisdom that 60 Minutes programming seems to have remained relatively consistent
in content type over the past two decades. This limited study does not resolve
Wilbur Schramm's quandry over whether consumers of news may be guided by
pleasure motives. Alan Rubin's uses and gratifications based conclusion, that
television viewers may be segmented into two distinct types, appears to be
reflected in the programming decisions involving 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC.
Judgments about the usefulness and or the definitive contributions of TV news
magazines are beyond the scope of this paper.
The limitations of this study include not including an analysis of transcripts
from tabloid oriented programs such as Hard Copy and Inside Edition for direct
comparison purposes. The recent research conducted in this area by Russomanno
and Everett, however, concluded that the more traditional news magazine programs
such as 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC are clearly distinct from the more tabloid
style news programs. Another limitation of this study is that a limited number
of independent variables were examined. This paper's focus was on presentation
styles and content, however, factors such as ratings and pressure for profits
from the networks and their parent corporations were not closely examined as to
any measurable effects that they might have on this news genre.
Further study might focus more closely on tracking the ratings and on examining
the audience composition of such news magazine programs.
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Notes
1. Krista Bradford, "The Big Sleaze," Rolling Stone, February 18, 1993, 39-43,
69.
Peter Viles, "News Execs Grumble About Tabloid TV," Broadcasting and Cable,
September 27, 1993, 42-43.
2. Larry Reibstein, "The Battle of the TV News Magazine Shows," Newsweek, April
11, 1994, 62. As of mid-1994, 14 news magazine shows were on-air with another
three forthcoming.
3. Alan Rubin, "Television Uses and Gratifications: The Interactions of Viewing
Patterns and Motivations," Journal of Broadcasting 27, no. 1, Winter 1983, 48 &
50.
4. David Scott and Robert Gobetz, "Hard News/Soft News Content of the National
Broadcast Networks, 1972-1987," Journalism Quarterly 69, no. 2, 407.
5. Kevin Stoker, "NBC's 'Dateline' debacle: A Systems Analysis of News
Organizations and the Public Trust," Convention paper for the 1995 Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication meeting in Washington,
D.C.,7.
6. George Garneau, "Trash Journalism," Editor & Publisher 127, no. 4, October
29, 1994, 8.
7. Teresa Keller, "Trash TV," Journal of Popular Culture 26, no. 4, Spring 1993,
195.
8. Ibid, 200 & 202.
9. Graham Knight, "Reality Effects: Tabloid Television News," Queen's Quarterly
96, no. 1, Spring 1989, 94.
10. Ibid, 94.
11. Ibid, 94 & 95.
12. Mark Harmon, "Mr. Gates Goes Electronic: The What and Why Questions in Local
TV News," Journalism Quarterly 66, Winter 1989, 857-863.
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13. William Davie, and Jung-Sook Lee, "Sex, Violence, and
Consonance/Differentiation: An Analysis of Local TV News Values, Journalism and
Mass Communication Quarterly 72, no. 1, Spring 1995, 129 & 130.
14. Knight, "Reality effects: tabloid television news," 96.
15. Knight Ibid, 97.
16. KnightIbid, 101.
17. Elizabeth Bird, "Storytelling on the Far Side: Journalism and the Weekly
Tabloid," Critical Studies in Mass Communication 7 no. 4, 1990, 378.
18. Ibid, 386.
19. David Scott and Robert Gobetz, "Hard News/Soft News Content of the National
Broadcast Networks, 1972-1987," Journalism Quarterly 69, no. 2, 407.
20. Ibid, 412.
21. Bert Briller, "The Tao of Tabloid Television," Television Quarterly 26, no.
4, 1993, 59.
22. Michael Curtin, "Packaging Reality," Journalism Monographs 137, February
1993, 11.
23. Ibid, 13.
24. David Schoelle, "Buy Our News: Tabloid Television and Commodification,"
Journal of Communication Inquiry 17, no. 1, Winter 1993, 56.
25. Dwight Dewerth-Pallmeyer and Paul Hirsch, "TV News Magazines vs. The New
Tabloids: Getting Past Content--An Organizational Perspective," 1994 Convention
paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, 1.
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26. Kevin Stoker, "NBC's 'Dateline' Debacle: A Systems Analysis of News
Organizations and the Public Trust," 1995 Convention paper presented at the
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication meeting in
Washington, D.C., 1.
27. Ibid, 3.
28. Ibid, 4.
29. Ibid, 7.
30. James Marra, and Maria Grabe, "Tabloid Television Exposed: The Architectural
Structure of Hard Copy," 1995 Convention paper presented at the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication meeting in Washington, D.C., 1.
31. Ibid, 18 & 19.
32. Joseph Russomanno, and Stephen Everett, "Television Newscasts, News
Magazines and Tabloids: Blurring Boundaries?" 1996 Convention paper presented at
the Broadcast Education Association meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, 1.
33. Ibid, 7, network newscasts included, ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening
News, and NBC Nightly News. News magazine programs included, 20/20, 48 Hours, 60
Minutes, Dateline NBC, Day One, Eye to Eye, Now, Prime Time Live, and Turning
Point. Tabloid programs included, A Current Affair, American Journal, Hard Copy
and Inside Edition.
34. Ibid, 7.
35. Elizabeth Bird, For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket
Tabloids. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1992, 7., and Philip
Weiss, "Bad Rap for TV Tabs," Columbia Journalism Review, May/June, 1993, 38.
36. Ibid, 10.
37. Russomanno and Everett, " Television Newscasts, News Magazines and Tabloids:
Blurring Boundaries?," 14.
38. Ibid, 15.
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39. Guido Stempel, "Gatekeeping: The Mix of Topics and the Selection of Stories,
Journalism Quarterly 62, no. 4, 796.
40. Bird, "Storytelling on the far side: journalism and the weekly
tabloid," 377- 378.
Bird wrote that the boundary between "information" regarded as important and
serious, and "entertainment" regarded as trivial and perhaps even morally
suspect, changes all the time.
41. John Pauley, "Rupert Murdoch and the Demonology of Professional Journalism,"
in Media, Myths, and Narratives, James W. Carey, ed. Sage Publications: Newbury
Park, CA, 1988, 246.
42. Ibid, 252.
43. Dan Nimmo, and James Combs, Nightly Horrors: Crisis Coverage by Television
Network News, The University of Tennessee Press: Knoxville, Tennessee, 1985, 28
& 40.
44. Guido Stempel and Bruce Westly, Research Methods in Mass Communication,
Second Edition, Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1989, 132 & 133.
45. Scott and Gobetz, "Hard News/Soft News Content of the National Broadcast
Networks, 1972-1987," 408.
46. Richard Campbell, "Don Hewitt's Durable Hour," Columbia Journalism Review,
September/October 1993, 25.
47. Ibid, 27.
Sensational: A Comparison of Content and Presentation Styles of the 60 Minutes
and Dateline NBC Television News Magazines
Abstract
This paper summarizes research findings on sensationalism and tabloidism in
television news programming. Research consisted of a content analysis of 329
news magazine segments airing on CBS's 60 Minutes and on Dateline NBC . Content
and presentation styles were compared. 60 Minutes ' content remained consistent
as primarily serious and informational. The two news magazines aired a similar
proportion of entertainment segments between 1993 and 1995. Dateline's
presentation style was significantly more sensational and less factual.
Table 2
Story Content Classification Totals Using the Deutchsmann Category System
(Spearman's Rho Rank Ordering for 60 Minutes '78-'80 and '93-'95 Comparisons)
Content 1978-1980 1993-1995 D D2
1 Politics & Gov't Acts (4) (2) 2 4
2 War and Defense (8.5) (5.5) 3 9
3 Diplomacy & Foreign (4) (9) 5 25
Relations
4 Economic Activity (8.5) (8) .5 .25
5 Agriculture (12) (14.5) 2.5 6.25
6 Transportation and (12) (12) 0 0
Travel
7 Crime (1) (3) 2 4
8 Public Moral (15) (10) 5 25
Problems
9 Accidents/Disasters (14) (12) 2 4
10 Science/ Invention (10) (14.5) 2.5 6.25
11 Public Health/Welf. (2) (1) 1 1
12 Education/Class. Arts (6) (5.5) .5 .25
13 Popular Amusements (4) (7) 3 9
14 General Human Inter. (7) (4) 3 9
15 Other (12) (12) 0 0
The critical Spearman's Rho value for 15 ranks is .623 which is significant at
the .01 level (.81608)
Table 3
Type of News Magazine Content Segment Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." 93-'95
Serious/ 54 58.1% 57 40.8% 53 55.8%
Informational
Soft/ 23 24.7% 45 32.1% 30 31.6%
Entertainment
Unclear/ 16 17.2% 38 27.1% 12 12.6%
Mixture
TOTALS 93 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 11.54866 df= 4 p < .05
Table 4
Style of News Magazine Story Presentation Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." '93-'95
Elitist/Fact. 55 58.5% 41 29.3% 45 47.4%
Ignorant/ 33 35.1% 64 45.7% 40 42.1%
Didactic
Sensational/ 6 6.4% 35 25.0% 10 10.5%
Tabloid
TOTALS 94 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 28.07600 df=4 p < .01
General Research Questions To A News Magazine Content Analysis Study-A Work in
Progress
(1-Does the relatively "new" news magazine "Dateline NBC," which began in 1992,
have more entertainment oriented segments, and more sensational stories, than
the more established CBS news magazine "60 minutes?"
(2-Over the past few years, have the content and presentation style of the
traditional news magazine program "60 Minutes," changed to a more
entertainment-oriented style when compared to the "60 Minutes" programs of the
late 1970's and 1980?
Overall Findings:
1-Statistical analysis shows the styles of story presentation examined in the
three programs are differ at a statistically significant level. For example,
"Dateline NBC" aired the least number of Elitist/Factual type segments and
aired more than twice as many sensationalistic story segments as did "60
Minutes" from CBS during the period of 1993-through 1995. See Table 3.
2-The type of segments also differed at a statistically significant level. "60
Minutes" from 1993-through-1995 aired approximately one-third more serious
informational segments than did "Dateline NBC" during the same period. "The NBC
news magazine also aired twice as many mixed or unclear type segments as did CBS
during the same period.
See Table 2.
3-"Dateline NBC" aired more than three times as many crime related segments from
1993-1995 when compared to CBS's "60 Minutes, although the percentage of general
human interest stories aired on both programs was similar" See Table 1.
4. CBS's "60 Minutes" news magazine displayed consistency in types of segments
aired during the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 respectively. See Table 2.
5. "60 Minutes" showed a decrease in the overall number of Elitist/Factual
style stories and an increase in both Ignorant/Didactic and Sensational/Tabloid
style stories when the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 are compared. See Table
3.
Other Significant Findings
1. Despite claims to the contrary by CBS News Executives,
"60 Minutes" has made significant presentation style changes in the news
magazine between the periods 1978-80 and 1993-95.
x2 = .00026 df= 2 p < .01
2. TV News magazine segment content shows statistically significant differences
in the periods 1978-80 compared to 1993-1995.
x2= .01793 df= 4 p < .05
Plan for additional analysis:
Possibly run a Spearman's Rho Test on Table 1 in Order to Rank Order Types of
News Segments from Period to Period
and between "Dateline" and "60 Minutes"-Thanks to JOUR 821 alumnus Dale Zacher
for this suggestion.
Table 2
Story Content Classification Totals Using the Deutchsmann Category System
(Spearman's Rho Rank Ordering for 60 Minutes '78-'80 and '93-'95 Comparisons)
Content 1978-1980 1993-1995 D D2
1 Politics & Gov't Acts (4) (2) 2 4
2 War and Defense (8.5) (5.5) 3 9
3 Diplomacy & Foreign (4) (9) 5 25
Relations
4 Economic Activity (8.5) (8) .5 .25
5 Agriculture (12) (14.5) 2.5 6.25
6 Transportation and (12) (12) 0 0
Travel
7 Crime (1) (3) 2 4
8 Public Moral (15) (10) 5 25
Problems
9 Accidents/Disasters (14) (12) 2 4
10 Science/ Invention (10) (14.5) 2.5 6.25
11 Public Health/Welf. (2) (1) 1 1
12 Education/Class. Arts (6) (5.5) .5 .25
13 Popular Amusements (4) (7) 3 9
14 General Human Inter. (7) (4) 3 9
15 Other (12) (12) 0 0
The critical Spearman's Rho value for 15 ranks is .623 which is significant at
the .01 level (.81608)
Table 3
Type of News Magazine Content Segment Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." 93-'95
Serious/ 54 58.1% 57 40.8% 53 55.8%
Informational
Soft/ 23 24.7% 45 32.1% 30 31.6%
Entertainment
Unclear/ 16 17.2% 38 27.1% 12 12.6%
Mixture
TOTALS 93 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 11.54866 df= 4 p < .05
Table 4
Style of News Magazine Story Presentation Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." '93-'95
Elitist/Fact. 55 58.5% 41 29.3% 45 47.4%
Ignorant/ 33 35.1% 64 45.7% 40 42.1%
Didactic
Sensational/ 6 6.4% 35 25.0% 10 10.5%
Tabloid
TOTALS 94 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 28.07600 df=4 p < .01
General Research Questions To A News Magazine Content Analysis Study-A Work in
Progress
(1-Does the relatively "new" news magazine "Dateline NBC," which began in 1992,
have more entertainment oriented segments, and more sensational stories, than
the more established CBS news magazine "60 minutes?"
(2-Over the past few years, have the content and presentation style of the
traditional news magazine program "60 Minutes," changed to a more
entertainment-oriented style when compared to the "60 Minutes" programs of the
late 1970's and 1980?
Overall Findings:
1-Statistical analysis shows the styles of story presentation examined in the
three programs are differ at a statistically significant level. For example,
"Dateline NBC" aired the least number of Elitist/Factual type segments and
aired more than twice as many sensationalistic story segments as did "60
Minutes" from CBS during the period of 1993-through 1995. See Table 3.
2-The type of segments also differed at a statistically significant level. "60
Minutes" from 1993-through-1995 aired approximately one-third more serious
informational segments than did "Dateline NBC" during the same period. "The NBC
news magazine also aired twice as many mixed or unclear type segments as did CBS
during the same period.
See Table 2.
3-"Dateline NBC" aired more than three times as many crime related segments from
1993-1995 when compared to CBS's "60 Minutes, although the percentage of general
human interest stories aired on both programs was similar" See Table 1.
4. CBS's "60 Minutes" news magazine displayed consistency in types of segments
aired during the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 respectively. See Table 2.
5. "60 Minutes" showed a decrease in the overall number of Elitist/Factual
style stories and an increase in both Ignorant/Didactic and Sensational/Tabloid
style stories when the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 are compared. See Table
3.
Other Significant Findings
1. Despite claims to the contrary by CBS News Executives,
"60 Minutes" has made significant presentation style changes in the news
magazine between the periods 1978-80 and 1993-95.
x2 = .00026 df= 2 p < .01
2. TV News magazine segment content shows statistically significant differences
in the periods 1978-80 compared to 1993-1995.
x2= .01793 df= 4 p < .05
Plan for additional analysis:
Possibly run a Spearman's Rho Test on Table 1 in Order to Rank Order Types of
News Segments from Period to Period
and between "Dateline" and "60 Minutes"-Thanks to JOUR 821 alumnus Dale Zacher
for this suggestion.
Table 1
Story Content Classification Totals Using the Deutchsmann Category System
(Spearman's Rho Rank Ordering for 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC 1993-1995
Comparisons)
Content Dateline NBC 60 Minutes D D2
1 Politics & Gov't Acts (5) (2) 3 9
2 War and Defense (12.5) (5) 7 49
3 Diplomacy & Foreign (10) (9) 1 1
Relations
4 Economic Activity (6) (8) 2 4
5 Agriculture (15) (14.5) .5 .25
6 Transportation and (8) (12) 4 16
Travel
7 Crime (1) (3) 2 4
8 Public Moral (10) (10) 0 0
Problems
9 Accidents/Disasters (10) (12) 2 4
10 Science/ Invention (7) (14.5) 6.5 42.25
11 Public Health/Welf. (4) (1) 3 9
12 Education/Class. Arts (12.5) (5.5) 7 49
13 Popular Amusements (2) (7) 5 25
14 General Human Inter. (3) (4) 1 1
15 Other (14) (12) .5 .25
The critical Spearman's Rho value for 15 ranks is .441 which is significant at
the .05 level (.6183)
Table 3
Type of News Magazine Content Segment Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." 93-'95
Serious/ 54 58.1% 57 40.8% 53 55.8%
Informational
Soft/ 23 24.7% 45 32.1% 30 31.6%
Entertainment
Unclear/ 16 17.2% 38 27.1% 12 12.6%
Mixture
TOTALS 93 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 11.54866 df= 4 p < .05
Table 4
Style of News Magazine Story Presentation Overall in Numbers and Percentages
"60 Min." '78-'80 "Dateline NBC" '93-'95 "60 Min." '93-'95
Elitist/Fact. 55 58.5% 41 29.3% 45 47.4%
Ignorant/ 33 35.1% 64 45.7% 40 42.1%
Didactic
Sensational/ 6 6.4% 35 25.0% 10 10.5%
Tabloid
TOTALS 94 100% 140 100% 95 100%
Chi Square = 28.07600 df=4 p < .01
General Research Questions To A News Magazine Content Analysis Study-A Work in
Progress
(1-Does the relatively "new" news magazine "Dateline NBC," which began in 1992,
have more entertainment oriented segments, and more sensational stories, than
the more established CBS news magazine "60 minutes?"
(2-Over the past few years, have the content and presentation style of the
traditional news magazine program "60 Minutes," changed to a more
entertainment-oriented style when compared to the "60 Minutes" programs of the
late 1970's and 1980?
Overall Findings:
1-Statistical analysis shows the styles of story presentation examined in the
three programs are differ at a statistically significant level. For example,
"Dateline NBC" aired the least number of Elitist/Factual type segments and
aired more than twice as many sensationalistic story segments as did "60
Minutes" from CBS during the period of 1993-through 1995. See Table 3.
2-The type of segments also differed at a statistically significant level. "60
Minutes" from 1993-through-1995 aired approximately one-third more serious
informational segments than did "Dateline NBC" during the same period. "The NBC
news magazine also aired twice as many mixed or unclear type segments as did CBS
during the same period.
See Table 2.
3-"Dateline NBC" aired more than three times as many crime related segments from
1993-1995 when compared to CBS's "60 Minutes, although the percentage of general
human interest stories aired on both programs was similar" See Table 1.
4. CBS's "60 Minutes" news magazine displayed consistency in types of segments
aired during the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 respectively. See Table 2.
5. "60 Minutes" showed a decrease in the overall number of Elitist/Factual
style stories and an increase in both Ignorant/Didactic and Sensational/Tabloid
style stories when the periods 1978-1980 and 1993-1995 are compared. See Table
3.
Other Significant Findings
1. Despite claims to the contrary by CBS News Executives,
"60 Minutes" has made significant presentation style changes in the news
magazine between the periods 1978-80 and 1993-95.
x2 = .00026 df= 2 p < .01
2. TV News magazine segment content shows statistically significant differences
in the periods 1978-80 compared to 1993-1995.
x2= .01793 df= 4 p < .05
Plan for additional analysis:
Possibly run a Spearman's Rho Test on Table 1 in Order to Rank Order Types of
News Segments from Period to Period
and between "Dateline" and "60 Minutes"-Thanks to JOUR 821 alumnus Dale Zacher
for this suggestion.
APPENDIX Television News Magazines/Sutherland/ 1996 Sensational-17-
Case Number (Do not fill-in) ___ ___ ___ 01-03/
TV Magazine Name ___ 04/
1 = "60 Minutes" 1978-1980
2 = "Dateline NBC"
3 = "60 Minutes" 1993-1995
Date (Year-Month-Day) ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ 05-10/
Segment Name _____________________________________
Story Content Classification (Mark the category which applies to this segment)
___ ___ 11-12/
1 = Politics and Government Acts
2 = War and Defense
3 = Diplomacy and Foreign Relations
4 = Economic Activity
5 = Agriculture
6 = Transportation and Travel
7 = Crime
8 = Public Moral Problems
9 = Accidents and Disasters
10 = Science and Invention
11 = Public Health and Welfare
12 = Education and Classic Arts
13 = Popular Amusements
14 = General Human Interest
15 = Other
Type of Segment Overall ___ 13/
1 = Serious/Informational (also known as "hard news," approach using
traditional criteria)
2 = Soft/Entertainment (usually human interest or popular amusement approach,
or a profile)
3 = Unclear/Mixture
Style of Story Presentation Overall ___ 14/
1 = Elitist/Factual, factually based, emphasis on why and how of the story,
straightforward
recounting of facts and events, verifiable information, interpretive.
2 = Ignorant/Didactic, simplistic information, information divided into brief
comprehensible units, story in non-technical language, the goal seems to be
overall comprehension, not
precise or sophisticated language.
3 = Sensationalistic/Tabloid, focus on sex, violence, crime, and/or ethical
lapses whether it affects
average people or celebrities. Emphasis on emotions over reason. Language is
hyped.
Coverage of who, what and where emphasized. Many facts seem unclear, accounts
unattributed.
Mixing of fiction and non-fiction.
Coder Name: _____________________
APPENDIX-Page Two Sensational-18-
Television News Magazine - Sutherland- Content Analysis Coding Instructions
1. Enter the number of the specific magazine program you are coding.
2. Enter year--month--and day--using numerals, example 95 12 25.
3. Print in the segment name, the title given the segment, listed on the
transcript.
6. Enter the classification of the TV news magazine segment. Guidelines listed
below:
Politics and Government Acts: Government acts and politics at the local, state
and national level.
War and Defense: War, defense, rebellion, military use of space.
Includes both foreign and domestic stories.
Diplomacy and Foreign Both foreign and domestic items dealing with
Relations: diplomacy and foreign relations. Includes United
Nations.
Economic Activity: General economic activity, prices, money, labor,
wages and natural resources.
Agriculture: Farming, farm prices and economic aspects of
agriculture.
Transportation and Travel Transportation and travel, including economic
aspects.
Public Moral Problems: Human relations and moral problems including
alcohol, divorce, sex, race relations, and civil
court proceedings.
Accidents and Disasters: Both man-made accidents and natural disasters.
Science and Invention: Science other than defense related, and other
than health and medicine.
Public Health and Welfare: Health, public welfare, social and safety measures,
welfare of children, and marriage and marriage relations.
Education and Classic Arts: Education, classic arts, religion, and
philanthropy.
Popular Amusements: Entertainment and amusements, sports, TV, radio, and
other media.
General Human Interest: Human interest, weather, obits, animals, cute children
and juvenile interest.
Other: Use sparingly please!
7. Enter the type of segment, overall, you think the news magazine segment
qualifies as; for example, a "Serious/Informational" follow traditional
journalism guidelines of objectivity, accuracy, and fairness, with sources
clearly identified. An overall "Soft/Entertainment" segment would focus on the
emotions and human interest stories but may not leave the viewer with any
significant information that they didn't have already.
8. Under item 13, mark whether the segment is classified as
"1" for Elitist/Factual, meaning that the copy is straight-forward, the
information is verifiable, credible, and and the information seems to be
presented so that the audience can make a rational judgment.
Mark "2" for Ignorant/Didactic if the segment seems to be stripped away of
complexities, is simplistic in tone, divided into brief comprehensible units,
expressed in non-technical language, and overall comprehension seems to be the
goal at the expense of any precise or sophisticated language.
Enter "3" if the segment is Sensationalistic/Tabloid." It focuses on elements
such as sex, violence, crime, or ethical lapses, whether it affects average
people or celebrities. The segment would emphasize emotions over reason and the
language would seem to be hyped. Coverage of who, what, and where would be
emphasized and the facts of the story would seem unclear.
9. Be sure to write your name-in for follow-up contact if needed--
Intercoder Reliability-Sutherland-TV News Magazine Content Analysis
#11 Content Classification & Coder A Coder B Coder C
Story Segment Name
Optical 11 11 11
Comparisons 7 7 7
Human 10 11 10
Order 1 1 1
Sorry 4 7 8
Anguish 7 7 7
#11 15 of 18 agree = 83%
#12 Segment Overall & Coder A Coder B Coder C
Story Segment Name
Optical 1 1 1
Comparisons 1 1 1
Human 1 1 2
Order 1 1 1
Sorry 1 1 1
Anguish 2 1 3
#12 16 of 18 agree = 89%
#13 Style Overall & Coder A Coder B Coder C
Story Segment Name
Optical 1 1 1
Comparisons 1 1 1
Human 1 1 2
Order 1 1 1
Sorry 1 1 1
Anguish 3 1 3
#13 16 of 18 agree = 89%
Intercoder reliability, established on the basis of percentage of agreement
ranged from 83% for story content classification to 89% for segment and style
type. Overall coder reliability for this study was 87% (Stempel and Westley,
1989).
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