State of the News Media 2007: Magazines
After a decade of speculation that technology might render the news weekly obsolete, the field heading into 2007 seems at long last on the cusp of genuine change – especially among the biggest titles.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
There was much fanfare when the new Democratic-led Congress was sworn in this past January claiming it had an electoral mandate for change. Since then, the new House and Senate Democrats have had trouble making laws or influencing Iraq policy. But as an examination of the coverage indicates, they’ve been quite successful in generating news.
The Scooter Libby verdict triggered a noisy debate on talk shows last week, even as the radio talkers were quiet about the problems at Walter Reed. But the real surprise may be in how some conservative hosts are treating the 2008 Democratic presidential frontrunners.
The battle in Iraq is still dominating the nation’s news coverage, but in different ways than it used to. While media attention on the political debate over troop strength has waned, a high-profile criminal trial and a riveting newspaper investigation have focused attention on different aspects of the controversial war.
The jury has spoken in the perjury and obstruction trial of Scooter Libby that so intimately involved the journalism profession itself. We know the vice-president’s former top aide was found guilty. But who and what else did the media implicate in its post-verdict coverage?
More so than any time this year, no single story dominated the news last week. But a number of sudden events and slowly developing subjects found their way into the headlines. Anna Nicole Smith faded, Al Gore re-emerged, and Bob Woodruff came back home to ABC.
The endless parade of Anna Nicole Smith legal proceedings was still a source of fascination for the cable talk hosts last week. But their radio counterparts opted for another favored subject—and it was open season on the 2008 campaign season.