Why Don't the Network Newscasts Cover Climate Change?

Media Matters is once again doing God's work (assuming God cares about the future of the human race) by drawing attention to the lack of climate change coverage on network television. It turns out the three network newscasts aired a combined total of 12 segments on the subject in 2012. Yikes.

Media Matters is asking its readers to sign a letter to the executive producers of the network newscasts asking for greater coverage of the issue. That can't hurt, but it raises the question of just what would lead to greater coverage.

One major obstacle to increased coverage is the politicized nature of the issue. Of course, science and the future of humanity shouldn't be politicized, but with the economic interests in ignoring the problem of climate change, politicization is inevitable. One of our major political parties is obviously willing to bend to those interests, but must our commercial news media?

The challenge here is familiar: with Republicans and Democrats largely on opposing sides of the issue, the media are restrained by twisted notions of objectivity and fear of criticism for violating that objectivity. These are real obstacles to covering climate change, but only real in the sense that they can go away if TV journalists and executives ignore them.

Viewer petitions like the one promoted by Media Matters could help a bit in that regard. But that letter to executives points to a bigger problem. That is, the content of TV newscasts is largely determined by what interests a profitable audience. So if the target audience for newscasts doesn't care about the issue (or want to hear about it) some other pressure would be required for coverage of that issue to get on the air. (This pressure could come from journalistic standards that say our impending doom is an inportant story, audience interests be damned.)

The networks likely pay attention to detailed ratings information and other reseach letting them know what viewers want to see. But that clearly didn't convince them to air more than 12 stories last year covering climate change. That suggests other means of expressing viewer interest (like a successful petition) or changes in politics or journalistic standards will be necessary before climate change gets adequate coverage.

Cheers was Filmed in Front of a Live Studio Audience, After All

It seems obvious that the trend of network television comedy is toward single-camera shows (like 30 Rock and Modern Family) and away from multi-camera shows, where you only ever see three walls and there are always people laughing. That's why it seems so bizarre that NBC is converting its single-camera comedy Up All Night to a multi-camera show. That conversion seems to have inspired series-star Christina Applegate to leave the show.

I say the trend seems obvious in part because of critical reaction (the last multi-camera show to win an Emmy for best comedy was Everybody Loves Raymond in 2005) and in part because of what I like to watch. But what about what other people like to watch?

CBS dominates the primetime ratings, and last week the only comedies to break the top 20 were on CBS. These were The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, both multi-camera shows.

Lorne Michaels is executive producer of Up All Night. He build a career on comedy in front of a live audience and it was his idea to convert Up All Night, based on his enthusiasm for the format. I have to think, also, that NBC -- which has difficulty cracking the top 20 with any of its shows -- might be especially willing to get ahold of what is happening at CBS.

America's Most Watched Network

CBS, which will enjoy a giant audience for next week's Super Bowl, already generally crushes its competition for TV viewers. In last week's prime-time ratings, CBS had 17 of the top 20 programs. That's crazy.

Even with the biggest audiences, though, revenue from advertising is shrinking. That can explain why CBS is expanding its licensing of shows for streaming and leaning more heavily on carriers and affiliates for revenue (from CNBC):

"Moonves boasted that CBS , which was once almost entirely reliant on advertising, is now diversifying: This past quarter, a record 44 percent of its revenue came from non-ad sources, namely compensation for its broadcast and cable networks."