When I was younger my life revolved around three things: playing outside with my friends, what I wanted to watch on tv and what my parents wanted to watch on tv. My dad loves to watch the news, so that what I watched a lot of the time, but I hated it. Fast forward to my sophomore year in high school, I started writing for the school's newspaper and learned a lot about the journalistic world. From then on I had a great interest and respect for journalism/ news. A favorite of mine was and still is journalism on network television. Most people don’t know how much broadcast journalism has evolved, both generally and on network television. Network television is the collection of tv stations that air programming from the same unified source (Halbrooks, Glen, "Why”).
Journalism first originated in books, then went to newspapers, then to radio, then to network tv, and finally on social media platforms. A key player to broadcast journalism while it was most popular on the radio is Edward Murrow. He was on the largest radio network in the US of all time, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (New York Film Academy). He moved to London to become the head of its operations for CBS and that's when his journalistic career accidentally got big. He developed a bunch or correspondents called “Murrow’s Boys.” What made Murrow an “American Hero” was his reports on World War 2. Instead of reporting the bombings going on in London, he reported everything on the rooftop, which also allowed him to become the first person in radio to use ambient sounds during his shows (Biography.com). He soon Transitioned to broadcast journalism on TV. His series was called See It Now, he covered a lot of hard-hitting events and even exposed McCarthy for his anticommunist persecutions (Biography.com). All of his work was on the broadcast channel of CBS, even when he was on television.
When television first came out, although primitive, it was a revolutionary product that everyone loved. The very first broadcasted baseball game was recorded on a single camera (Stephens, Mitchell). At first, there was only one huge network of broadcast television, National Broadcasting Company or NBC. This network owned multiple different networks, like the next networks to be considered broadcasted networks. CBS became the second network on broadcast television. Then the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) told NBC that they had to sell two of its networks, thus creating the American Broadcast Company (ABC) and making them the third network on broadcast television (Stephens, Mitchell). At first, these channels had a lot of people talking as if it was on the radio but on tv, there was an issue with finding pictures for the newscast. Creating a television network is a lot harder than a radio network, its costly and difficult (Ponce de Leon, Charles L.).
When it came to actually create the networks, it took a lot of effort. First, the technology was more advanced than radio technology. You would need to create a coaxial cable that was made specifically for the medium and a government regulated “phone monopoly” (Ponce de Leon, Charles L.). Until they could get the wires all over the country, stations relied on local talent to produce programs. It wasn’t until 1951 that the coaxial cable wired to the west coast as well. In 1944, CBS leaped to the frontline in broadcast journalism on network tv by having 15 min news program every Thursday and Friday night at 8 (Ponce de Leon, Charles L.). But NBC was not far behind. A year later, NBC releases a short Sunday evening newscast. All of the newscasts was just like the newsreels in the movies. Eventually, networks started sending out reporters to cover local stories. Then networks started to expand their newscast to 7 days and launched weeknight newscast. This was all in response to the television sets sales booming (Ponce de Leon, Charles L.).
The Golden Age of broadcast television is from 1948 to 1959. This era brought some shows that are still on today and if they don’t record new episodes, then they have reruns still. There were shows like NBC’s “spectacular” (Peter Pan) and The Tonight Show, ABC’s Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club, and CBS’s I Love Lucy (Allen, Steve, and Robert J. Thompson). During this time people watched television all the time, but it was more focused on family friendly content. CBS was considered the best in broadcast journalism, but NBC still wanted that spot. NBC attempted to pull in front by producing the newscast show The Camel News Caravan. At first, it seemed “superficial” but it slowly improved, eventually making it the first widely viewed program of the television age (cronkitehhh.jmc.asu.edu). This show definitely put pressure on rival networks and created leverage in NBC’s efforts to command network resources.
There were two events that happened in 1959 that ended up being the demise of the Golden Age. The quiz show scandal is the first event. There were whisperers that the game shows that were ruling the airways were fixing the shows (Allen, Steve, and Robert J. Thompson). People would say that the contestants along with show host would be given the answers to the questions that would be asked that day. This scandal caused a lot of problems for broadcast television, the biggest being a loss of faith in television and its leaders (Allen, Steve, and Robert J. Thompson). The second event was The Untouchable series on ABC. The show is about organized crime activity during the prohibition era in Chicago. People would protest it because of the access violence on screen (Allen, Steve, and Robert J. Thompson). Although this was not the only show with violence, it became the face of the protest.
The 1960s is where broadcast journalism on network television really started to grow. Usually, the people who worked on tv had a background in radio or newspapers, so there was a previous experience. During this time there were many technological improvements for the broadcast television networks, like adding color to the newsreels and having the ability to report live (cronkitehhh.jmc.asu.edu). Stations also switched from having 15-minute long newscast to 30-minute long newscast. The first to switch was CBS, then NBC, then ABC. In 1962 an anchor named Walter Cronkite began broadcasting on the CBS Evening News. He became one of the most well known, trusted, and respected news anchors. Cronkite on CBS Evening News made CBS become the rating leader in nightly news broadcasting, for the first time beating NBC (cronkitehhh.jmc.asu.edu). This was the beginning of the quality and quantity of broadcast news going upwards. But news really grew during the Kennedy assassination.
In the 70s, there were many shifts and breakthroughs. One of the breakthroughs is Barbara Walters. Walters was the first woman to co-anchor a network newscast, making history (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”). In fact, even during that period, she was treated with almost no respect until her co-anchor, Frank McGee, died. She became the “Today Girl” (New York Film Academy). News networks began to make a huge shift in content. They began to bring people what they wanted to see instead of what they needed to know (New York Film Academy). Even the technology got better. The old using film for newsreels was replaced with videotapes, because of this change, getting things up became easier. The microwave trucks creation allowed news networks to report events live from the scene (New York Film Academy). But these new technologies are costly, so stations had to cover less important events like ribbon-cutting ceremonies to help pay for their new expenses.
During the 80s, networks added something to the regular format of reporting. Journalist convinced the networks that there was more to reporting than the traditional news, weather, and sports (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”). Many news stations then began to include health and consumer reporting, and because of this, shows didn’t solely rely on the day's events for content. This time also introduced computers. Many networks ha computers in the newsrooms, making everything easier to deal with. Along with the already used microwave trucks, some stations began using satellite newsgathering trucks.
The 90s were the year of newsmagazines (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”). But there was still some hope with some similar to the norms. Examples of these “normal” shows would be ABC’s Primetime Live, Dateline NBC, and CBS’s Eye to Eye with Connie Chung. Not much went on during the 90s but in the 2000s, everyone's lives were going to change. Old-fashioned reported started to come back to the limelight, for two events ruled the newsrooms. As the presidential election went on, news reporters and stations were tried to help people understand the Electoral College and other aspects of the election system (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”). Nothing was the same after the second event, 9/11. In fact, the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed broadcast journalism today (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How"). Anchors had to report the information they had as they would get the information because most stations were reporting live and by the minute. Not only did they have to report the incident but they had to reassure viewers. Then they also played their roles as gatekeepers, by deciding what to report on, should they tell the viewers or keep it hidden. This time period also introduced website development, which made posting videos a lot easier (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”). Websites made the networks have to decide whether to post the news online before or after the broadcast.
The 2010s is when broadcast news on network tv really changed. There were many technological changes, which changed and added platforms. Now there is news being reported everywhere, like social media. And because of this, traditional broadcast journalism probably won't last much longer, but the networks will survive because they adapt (Halbrooks, Glenn, “How”).
During the history of broadcast journalism on network tv, there were and are many journalists who are considered great journalism. Walter Cronkite, who was the first ever anchor and Americas most recognizable and tv journalist (New York Film Academy). Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were a co-host on the NBC show The Huntley-Brinkley Reports. This show was different from other shows every because of its broadcasting style. In fact, the show is critical-acclaimed because of its style (New York Film Academy). The show would cut in between Huntley who was in New York and Brinkley who was in Washington D.C. Barbra Walters who was hired by NBC as a researcher and writer. Jim McKay who was a sports journalist. He was on the show ABC’s Wide World of Sports and he also covered and became the face of Munich Olympics’ hostage crisis (New York Film Academy). Oprah Winfrey started as a host for A.M. Chicago, an ABC affiliated morning show (New York Film Academy). Eventually started her own show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and creating her own cable network, OWN. Lastly, Peter Jennings, the youngest anchor for ABC Evening News at 27 years old. He was the face of the 9/11 attacks and won several awards for his reporting. He was also named “best actor” in 1988,1990, and 1992 by the Washington Journalism Review (New York Film Academy).
Not only was there great and influential journalism back in the day, but there are also some still reporting today. Since the networks have expanded, we can now use British reporters, like Robert Fisk. He is known for his fearless reporting on hard topics, like interviewing Al-Queda leader Osama Bin Laden 3 times (New York Film Academy). He is also known for covering the Persian Gulf war, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq war between 1990 and 2003 (New York Film Academy). He won many awards and even holds more British and international awards than any other foreign correspondent.
Kate Adie is also a British journalist. Her big break came when she reported live and unscripted on the London Iranian Embassy siege. She was behind a car with exploding smoke bombs and soldiers around her (New York Film Academy). She is most well known for her war zone coverage. She has also rewarded the officer of the order of the British Empire award.
Christina Amanpour was known as one of the journalists with the most world leaders following them on twitter. She is currently the global affairs anchor for ABC News and chief international correspondent for CNN international (New York Film Academy). She has won every major broadcasting award and is a member of the board of directors of the committee to protect journalist, International Women’s Media Foundation, and the Center for Public Integrity.
Hu Shuli is a Chinese journalist. Although not American, she is listed in Forbes for most powerful women in the world and Times Magazine for top 100 influential people (New York Film Academy). She founded a media group called Caixin Media, which she is also currently the editor-in-chief. Prior she was the chief reporter and international editor of China Business Times. She has always been known for her bold investigative works on fraud and Corruption (New York Film Academy). She is also a board member of the International Women’s Media Foundation.
Bob Woodward is an American journalist. He is best known for exposing the Watergate scandal and reporting the scandal with colleague Carl Bernstein (New York Film Academy).
Anderson Cooper is also an American journalist. He was an ABC News correspondent and an am anchor on CNN but now host his show, Anderson Cooper 360. He covered the war in Iraq and hurricane Katrina (New York Film Academy). He also won many awards and Emmys.
Luis Theroux is a British journalist who is known to get his subjects to open up and talk with him freely. His show was called Luis Theroux’s Weird Weekends.
Diane Sawyer is a name most people know. She is an American journalist, who became the first female correspondent for 60 Minutes. Recently she became the anchor for ABC World News and has previously co-anchored Primetime Live, 20/20 and ABC’s Good Morning America (New York Film Academy). She is also on the list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.
Shereen Than is an Indian reporter. She is the Delhi Bureau Chief and executive head of CNBC-tv18 in India and produces and anchors shows like India Business Hour, The Nation’s Business, Young Turks and Power Turks (New York Film Academy). She has also won many awards.
Glen Greenwald is an American journalist, who is most well known for being chief recipient and publisher of America’s most significant leak in history, Edward Snowdens classified documents (New York Film Academy).
Jon Stewart is not the usual person you would see on an influential journalist of today list but he counts. He is an American Director, producer, writer, actor, comedian, media critic, and politician satirist. He hosted The Daily Show for 20 seasons and is most influential in younger generations. The Daily Show is ranked as one of the top programs watched by 19 to 34-year-olds and the show influenced many young voters to vote (New York Film Academy). He has won two awards for his coverage on the presidential elections.
When it comes to Broadcast journalism on network television, the history could go on forever. There are so many significant things that have happened and has yet to happen. Its effected our lives in so many ways, we don’t even know it. But without broadcast journalism, where would we be today? Just confused and ignorant about the world.