Back in my day...

Four score and five years ago, the first television broadcast was aired and forever changed how we receive news. I recently spoke with 2 people from an older generation to get their opinion of the evolution of television news, specifically, cable versus networks. Both subjects stated that they never watch local news, and only one of them watch any televised news at all. Terry only watches one news program, CNN Headline news. Why not regular CNN news or any of its cable counterparts? She said that the reason she chooses that specific show is because they mix it up. They talk about the sad or serious stories but they incorporate humorous stories as well. The reason Terry doesn't watch the local news is because she says that it is not relevant enough to her and it is too depressing, but CNN Headline news delivers in a style that isn't so heavy. She believes that the cable networks and the traditional networks are all equal in quality, but they are covered differently. To her, traditional news networks such as ABC, CBS, and NBC are too serious and have lacks the entertainment factor found on other programs. Along with headline news, she reads the newspaper. What she likes about that over broadcast news is that she can select to read whatever she wants. She can skip over stories she's not interested in and read the ones that are relevant, something that just isn't an option when receiving news through television.

Brian had a slightly more opinionated take on the subject. He chooses not to watch televised news broadcasts at all. He believes that all programs on both the cable and traditional networks have a political agenda and oftentimes come off as being bias. When he was growing up, he remembers watching the news where the anchors would give you all the facts and let you decide your own opinions for yourself. He specifically recalled events such as the moon launch and landing, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assassination of John Lennon being delivered on the news in a much more credible and neutral way. Brian gets almost all of his news from online sources, specifically an from an app called Flipbook, which allows you to get news stories from a variety of sources all in one place. He prefers this because he can read the same story from a variety of different sources and them form his own opinions on the topic. If he's not getting news from his iPad, then he's reading the Sunday paper. He stated that unlike televised news, newspapers are a reliable, neutral source. The one downside is the timeliness of the whole process. That's where there's an obvious benefit from being available online. 

It is unlikely that television networks will go back to the way that they used to be and we'll have completely unbiased news reporting, but there are plenty of alternative news sources available to those who may be concerned about neutral reporting.