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Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75Th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992)

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Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75Th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992) DOCUMENT RESUME ED 349 614 CS 507 961 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part VII: Television. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 92 NOTE 265p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 507 955-970. For 1991 Proceedings, see ED 340 045. Some pages contain light type. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cable Television; Censorship; Foreign Countries; Mass Media Effects; *Mass Media Role; News Reporting; Programing (Broadcast); Sex Differences; Television Research; *Television Viewing IDENTIFIERS CNN World Report; Congress; Gulf War; King (Rodney); Local News; Media Coverage; News Releases; *Television News ABSTRACT The Television section of the proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "Financial Commitment and Performance in Local Television News: Applying the Industrial Organizational Model" (Angela Powers); "The Relationship between Censorship and the Emotional and Critical Tone of Television News Coverage of the Persian Gulf War" (John E. Newhagen); "The Dynamics of Television Program Audience Accumulation" (Guy E. Lometti and others); "Development Orientation of Domestic and International News on the CNN World Report" (Chun-il Park and others); "How Cable Television Network Programming Strategies Affect Time Spent Viewing" (Beth E. Barnes); "The Rodney King Tape and the Viewer's Role in the Rituals of TV News--Seeing Was Believing" (Sandra Haarsager); "Video News Releases: Breaching the Covenant with Viewers" (Travis Linn); "Filling the Gap: Congress Increases Its Video as TV News Cuts Budgets" (Floyd J. McKay); "The Ceremonial of Television News Sweeps: 'Series Sleaze' and 'Series Stress'" (Matthew C. Ehrlich); and "Behind the Bleeps: Organizational Processes and the Roles of the Network Television Censors" (John Weispfenning). (RS) *********************************************************************** aeprooucLions supplies oy niktb are une nest that canbe made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part VII: Television. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY and Improvement OH ice of Educational Research INFORMATION EDUCATIONAL CENTERIC)RESOURCES P(rhis document has been reprucedodrganiz as received Irom the person oro aonti originating it. Minor changes have beenmade to improve reproduction Quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES stated in this docu. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Points of view or opinionsrepresent official merit do not necessarily OEM position or policy 2 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Financial Commitment and Performance in Local Television News: Applying the Industrial Organizational Model by Angela Powers Assistant Professor Department of Journalism Northern Illinois University DeKalb, Illinois 60115 (815) 753-7011 Summer 1992 Presented to the Management and Economics Division of the AEJMC at the annual convention in Montreal, Canada, August5-8, 1992. 3 ABSTRACT Financial Commitment and Performance in Local Television News: Applying the Industrial Organizational Mob: -.t New technology and intense competition is redefining the role of television news. This study provides support for using the industrial organization model to examine performance of local television news under these changing conditions. While previous research has established a relationship between competition and financial commitment to news, it has failed to address the relationship between financial commitment and performance. In this study, a positive relationship was found between the market structure variable of competition and the conduct variable of resources allocated to the newsroom.' In addition, results indicated a relationship between competition and the performance variable of increased viewership. These findings suggest that when local television news programs are highly competitive, additional financial resources are likely to be committed to the news product. More importantly, results suggest that intense competition in local television news results in increased viewership for everyone. Financial Commitment and Performance in Local Television News: Applying the Industrial Organizational Model The advent of innovations such as fiber optics, 150-channel cable systems, and direct broadcast satellites has opened a massive flow of news and information into viewers' homes. As the number of news and information programs continues to grow, concern has been expressed about the effect of increased competition on conduct and performance of local television ne departments. Where television news is concerned, will growing diversity, niche programming, and overall increased competition result in increased financial_ commitment to news, which, in turn, will satisfy additional viewers' needs for more depth coverage and greater sense of news context? Research into newspaper competition indicates that intense competition increases the amount of money spent on the news- editorial budget (Litman and Bridges, 1986; Lacy, 1987 and 1990). Yet, in the broadcast industry, trade articles suggest thatsince the late 1980's pressure has intensified to tighten broadcast newsroom budgets (Button, 1987). This profit orientation has been termed the "corporatization of American journalism" (Kwitny, 1990). r The purpose of this paper is to take an exploratory look at the relationship between conduct measures, such as television news departments' financial commitment to news, and performance measures, such as ratings. Previous research has identified relationships between competition measures and conduct measures. However, the question remains as to whether or not a relationship exists between financial commitment to television news and overall performance of news departments. To address this question, the industrial organization model will be applied in this current study. Background The industrial organization model is derived from microeconomic theory and is useful in evaluating the market forces affecting how firms and entire markets function. According to the model, market structure determines market conduct, thereby affecting market performance. In general, market structure is defined as the organization of a market with an emphasis on sellers and buyers, product differentiation, barriers to entry, cost structure and vertical integration as key variables (Caves, 1987). For local television news, market structure has been defined in terms of oligopoly theory, where there are few sellers and where sellers produce somewhat differentiated products (Litman, 1980; Prisuta, 1979). However, with additional news programs from cable and independent stations entering the market with network affiliation news 2 programs (Broadcasting, 1987 and 1990, Katz, 1992), the number of sellers of local news is no longer limited, resulting in increased competition (Powers, 1990). As such, competition intensity and size of market were the market structure variables examined in this study. Competition intensity was selected because research reviewed indicates that resource allocation is affected by competition (Litman and Bridges, 1986; Lacy et al., 1989). The level of resources can enhance or constrain news gathering. Size of market was included as a control variable because larger markets generally have more resources available than do smaller markets. Conduct refers to the way sellers and buyers act in the market. Relevant conduct variables include pricing behavior, product strategy, research and innovation, and advertising. Two market conduct variables were selected for this study. Hours of news per day was one conduct variable studied since it may affect the extent of the news coverage and the number of people who can be exposed to the coverage. Although hours of news as a conduct variable for televisions news has never been studied, similar conduct variables have been studied within the newspaper industry. Litman and Bridges (1986) found that competitive newspaper had larger newsholes. This indicated that competitive newspapers increased expenditures on the information product to attract readers. Hours of news is also an important variable to study because the question is raised as to whether an increase in news time 3 results in an increase in quality or ratings. Bernstein, et al. (1990) found that the increased length of some newscasts are devoted to primarily non-local coverage. They suggest that "stations expanding their newscast length do not increase their staff enough to fill the added space with an equivalent amount of local news" (Bernstein, et al., 1990, p. 670). Size of newsroom staff was the second conduct variable studied. Previous studies have indicated that staff sizes were positively correlated with performance in the newspaper industry (Lacy et al., 1989). To date, this relationship has not been studied within the local television news industry. However, as Bernstein, et al. indicate, this relationship merits examination. Performance is defined by how well an organization achieves its goals (Caves, 1987; Busterna, 1988a). The prime goal of a television news department is to attract viewers to sell advertising time. Since ratings are a primary
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