The 24 Hour News Network - The Issue with the Media Today?

 Today, a person can turn a tv on at all hours of the day and they will be able to watch a news channel.  A person is able to do this because there was a creation of what we know as a 24 hour news network.  There are three prime examples of these creations in America: CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.  CNN was the first 24 hour news network and the middle of the road network.  Fox News is the conservative Republican favored network that currently has the highest ratings.  MSNBC is the more liberal Democrat favored network.

Even with Fox News having the highest ratings, people are still watching and trusting the news networks less and less.  If you look at Fox's viewership in perspective, you start to see that being the leader really isn't that great of an accomplishment.  Fox News has the best ratings at 3 Million viewers, but it isn't the highest rated news organization.  When you look at 3 million people, you see that 3 million is only 1% of the 300 Million people in America.  National Public Radio known as NPR actually has over 27 Million listeners and it is funded by the listeners.

The programing that these news networks pick are major reason why ratings are continuing to fall for 24 hour news networks.  The 24 hour news networks have a more time to fill up their programing, therefore they pick lesser important stories or they continue talking abou the same story over and over and over.  Many Americans believe that 24 hour news networks water down the news so much just to fill in the empty time.  Americans do not want to turn to a "news" station and get fluff and filler.

Another major issue with how 24 hour news networks run their programming is that they try to chase after the ratings.  The issue with chasing after ratings is that they are miscalculating about their viewership, which is hurting their ratings long-term.  The networks chase ratings by trying to run stories on hot button issues or push a certain story to fit into one of those "hot" issues, even when it really does not belong.

This chase for the ratings is actually developed into yellow journalism. Yellow journalism is the act of using little or no researched news to get the headlines, which usually turns into fear-mongering and scandal making.  It is also used where they run with a story because they want to be the first to talk about the story, but they have not confirmed their sources or waited for the full story.

In the end, the invention of the 24 hour news network was a great idea, but in practice, it fails to hit the mark.  With these networks, one would expect to find reliable news that without any bias and could always be depended to be 100% true and factual, but over and over again, this just isn't the case in today's world.  The thirst for ratings and ad revenue outweighs the commitment to the news and good journalism, but they fail to understand that people really want good journalism and a commitment to the news, which would give the ratings.  If the networks ever realize this fact, then their ratings would go up and in turn the ad revenue would go up but they have it backwards.