Pretty amazing visual study at Daily Kos on hard news content in American media. A reader took a screenshot of CNN’s homepage, then removed all advertising and promotional content. From what remained, he then removed all the “fluffy” news. Links to hard news stories that remained make up a sliver of the total screen real estate. Then he tries the same with the homepage of China’s chinaview.cn — hmmm… nothing to strip out — it’s all hard news (but is it trustworthy news?)
There’s something to be said for state-run media. Take the money out of the news equation and the content ratio rises (c.f. PBS vs. commercial media). On the other hand, check out how Iranian government censors take a pen to cartoon and advertising images in imported magazines in that country.
You want the frying pan, or you want the fire?
Scott – I really take issue with the ’study’ as it is based on one day of news. I would categorize it as a rant rather than a study. Study implies time and multiple chances for the CNN site to be evaluated. I think looking across 30 days might be valid, but one day – no. Lee
Lee – I meant “study” more in the sense of an excercise, like a piano study or a painting. Didn’t mean to imply it was a study in the sense of a rigourous study.
Nevertheless, I would not be surprised to find similar results across a 30-day span.