I admit it my interest in the news has dropped in the later part of this year……it became so damn redundant that I stopped watching network news and went to reading it……corporate media has become a tool rather than an informer…..
Apparently I am not alone in my disdain for the corporate media…..
The presidential election, pandemic, and racial reckoning were stories that drove intense interest and engagement to news outlets in 2020. To a large degree, 2021 represented the inevitable hangover. The AP reports various metrics illustrate the dwindling popularity of news content. The major takeaways:
- Cable news networks: In 2021, weekday prime-time viewership dropped 38% at CNN, 34% at Fox News Channel, and 25% at MSNBC, according to the Nielsen company. The decline was less steep but still significant at broadcast television evening newscasts: 12% at ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News; 14% at NBC’s Nightly News, Nielsen said.
- News sites. The Trump era saw explosive subscriber growth for some digital news sites like the New York Times and Washington Post. Yet readers aren’t spending as much time there; Comscore said the number of unique visitors to the Post’s site was down 44% in November compared to November 2020, and down 34% at the Times.
- What’s changed. The cable news networks built a prime-time model almost entirely focused on political combat during the Trump years, which made it difficult for them to pivot to something different, said Tom Rosenstiel, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland. “You become, to some extent, a prisoner of the audience you built,” Rosenstiel said.
- The social numbers: Those networks remain focused on politics even as viewership interest wanes. The media monitoring company NewsWhip looked at 14 million political articles online last year and found they had an average of 924 engagements, or social media interactions. The 13.5 million articles NewsWhip has traced in 2021 had an average of 321 engagements.
- Some pivots: To a certain extent, these outlets have turned elsewhere for revenue opportunities, said news media analyst Ken Doctor. CNN is preparing to debut a new streaming service early next year, and recently poached Fox News’ Chris Wallace to join that effort. Fox News, while doubling down on conservative commentary following perceived threats from outlets like Newsmax and OANN, directed fans to its Fox Nation streaming service. Doctor said the Times has done an effective job of diversifying beyond politics, most notably with its Wirecutter service of consumer recommendations.
- Big in 2022: Both CNN and MSNBC face key programming decisions in the new year. CNN must replace its most popular host, Chris Cuomo, who was fired after it was revealed how he helped his brother through a political scandal. MSNBC must replace Brian Williams in its lineup and will most likely see its most popular personality, Rachel Maddow, cut back on her hour
I thought it was just me being bored and irritated with the news…..my posting has illustrated my disgust with the news and the direction of this country….I found NO redeeming quality in the year 2021.
2022 will be little difference and the news will still be sensationalism dressed up as news….it will continue to do little other than sell stupidity and ignorance to the American people and the world.
Be part of the solution not a by-stander.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
You have a “hippie-esque” view of government in general, old buddy.. tending to downplay pretty much most institutions simply because of their alleged ulterior motives centering around money and profits at the expense of some kind of humanity. I certainly can’t argue that some of that is not in fact true to some extent. I’m an old businessman with old style Republican roots, and more importantly, I have not served in combat, so my life experience and views don’t have that influence to consider, so I am not challenging your opinion on the subject. But I do have a question/observation…
You don’t trust government in general, much less big business. You have a undercurrent of animosity toward “elitists”. You don’t discount the idea that conspiracy-for-profits or personal hidden agendas exist. You have little trust in the media. But is that not the essence of Right wing, Trump base, politics as well? Is it possible that a person does not have to like Trump, or subscribe to the wackiness of his base and the idiotic denialism, to have similar political slants?
Reminds me of back in the day, my first year of college, 1970… away from home in downstate Illinois. Moratorium Day (or one of them). The local “hippies” (fellow students) would gather around the base of the school flagpole and twang away their music and anti-war rhetoric… and a few of us holding the opposite opinion (America-love-it-or-leave-it guys.. Trump would have been proud) would gather around the base as well.. making sure none of those “commie-pinkos” would haul down the flag and burn it. I was 19 at the time, and a year away from enlisting. It’s amazing we survived that crap at all. Times change, hate changes, and all we do is get older.
Hippie or not…I think that corporations owe this country and the lie of jobs is not doing their fair share……to think that they are out for the ‘little guy” is pie in the sky BS……since they are now citizens according to SCOTUS why then they not be made to follow the example that they want me to follow? Happy new year. chuq
Yet is that not the nature of free market capitalism, chuq?
Free market is an illusion….how can it be free when government decides the rules? chuq
This time of year sees very little ‘News’ in England. The main news companies indulge themselves in ‘Review of the year’ specials, ‘Sporting Triumphs’, “Who we lost in 2021′, (the dead list) and so on. Finding any real news gets harder every day, until the 2nd of January.
Best wishes, Pete.
Same here, Pete. Except the people who have died are often my age or thereabouts (not counting the random celebrity who can’t deal with fame and riches). Rather sobering.
Yes mate, many on yesterday’s death list were much younger than me! 🙂
Just goes to show the value of a longer life due to having less money and good genes. 🙂
I gu7ess we are doing that as well….I cannot say for sure for I have NOT watched news in almost a month. chuq
I watch it daily, and at this time of year, I wonder why I bother.
I have always been a news junkie but this year it was too disgusting to watch or listen……chuq