Past Successes and Failures of CNN:Breaking News and The CNN Effect

Katt, Lauracindy, Shannon, & Stephen

• Founded in 1980 by Ted Turner• First all news network in US• First 24 hour news network• Shown in 212 countries• Shown in 100 million US Households

Brief History

Reputation

• The place to turn for breaking news, 24 hours a day during times of crisis– Challenger Explosion 1986– Gulf War 1991– September 11, 2001

The 24-Hour News Cycle and the effect

• Government understood connecting with the media and having a media strategy, for the first time

• CNN Effect is the role that non-stop coverage can have in international diplomacy

• Real-time updates in TV broadcast can sway public opinion and facilitate communication of government operations.

• Who is CNN? This is an identity which they formed for themselves, but is it enough to survive?

• Positives: At first it was the ONLY place to turn for IMMEDIATE coverage.

• Negatives: Meaning of “breaking news” has changed over the years and is now a bit of a cliché/overused…not EVERYTHING is worthy of being “breaking news.”

Gulf War

Iraq invade Kuwait (August 2, 1990):• BUCHANAN: In other words, you think he'd be mixing it up with

the United States militarily if he did that?• Mr. ULLMAN: Well, he could be mixing up with a lot of people. I

mean, don't forget, you've got- you've got Syria, with 400,000 people, on his border; you've got Iran still with a large standing army; you've got a Soviet Union who might take some sort of action; and, last and most importantly, you've go the United States, and I think that while we couldn't mount a response overnight, in two months or three months or four months, I think that we could deal with an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia.

• Start of Desert Storm

• Live, sensationalized coverage, but CNN DID live up to their reputation of being on the scene and bringing live coverage.

Live Coverage Shock and Awe

# fail• Iran Elections 2009• Did not live up to their reputation for being on

the scene for important international events• No breaking coverage of Iran elections

WWW.CNNFAIL.COM

Gulf Oil SpillDON: CNN's David Mattingly is in Bayou La Batre, Alabama where a lot of fishermen could be facing the end of their livelihoods right now. Hello David. what tomorrow is going to hold.DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. That's exactly right. They don't know how bad this is going to be in the future. For right now, they know that their season is over their livelihoods are stopped as of this moment. Right now, we're looking at entire towns who depend on fishing for their economy, wondering

New Breaking Developments Tried to question authority

Breaking News in Japan

Are both of these REALLY breaking news?

iReport

Controversial, unedited division of CNN, which really allows them to be anywhere, at anytime. This is how they have “breaking news” now, such as in Egypt, etc.

Ratings Decline

"CNN, which is in a period of extreme transition, had yet another month of bad ratings news. The channel had its lowest prime time viewership since 2000, averaging just 486,000 total viewers, with 144,000 in the A25-54 demo.” -Huffington Post