Television News: Geographic and Source Biases, 1982 - 2004

Abstract

This is a study of news bias in U.S. network television evening news that examines the locus of news stories, who can “make news” or who constitutes a “news source.” It extends the scope of previously published analyses of geographic and sources biases in network television news. The study is based on extensive content analysis of three two-year periods of networks news: 1982 – 1984, 1992 – 1994, and 2002 – 2004. Geographic and source news biases not only existed during the period examined, they largely continued to exhibit the patterns discovered by previous studies, despite advances in newsgathering technologies employed by television news organizations.