Cable News Network
CNN or Cable News Network is a cable television network, known worldwide because it is the pioneer in broadcasting world news 24 hours a day.
- History.
The Turner Broadcasting System launched CNN on June 1st, 1980. The first years were very tough for the network and it made serious losses. It had to compete strongly with another news channel: SNC. Therefore Ted Turner founded CNN Headline News, a channel that constantly repeats the headlines. Finally CNN won this competition and it bought the Satellite News Channel; in 1985 it made its first profits. In the end of the eighties, the company started to extend. CNN was put on international satellites; lots of bureaus were set up around the world to procure information quickly and accurately for the main centre in Atlanta. CNN got his image of "be the first to know" during the first Gulf War. Saddam Hussein only authorised CNN in Iraq, so the network reported exclusively news and images. In the nineties, CNN was settled. According to polls in 1995, viewers found CNN "the most fair among all TV outlets" , and "trusted CNN more than any television news organization."
- Method.
What also strikes the viewers are the diverging programs: except reporting world news there's also economical news, Show Biz Today for entertainment and of course the Larry King talk show. In her paper The CNN role in the global market of news broadcasting, I. Barbetta describes CNN's very efficient method to report every single piece of information. In the "International Desk" in Atlanta, all news, videos and possible interviews are gathered and distributed to the specific network, then to the specific program. Often one single news item is brought in a different way, first because of the different companies, second because it is fairer to approach an event from different ways, especially if you aim for an international public. Wikipedia.com mentions that today 1 billion people in 212 countries can watch CNN. It has 15 networks (among others are CNN, CNN Headline News, CNNfn) and 12 websites. Nevertheless FOX is most viewed in the U.S.; CNN comes in second place.
- Sources:
- Cable News Network, internet, 5-11-2003, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN).
- Gomery, D., Cable News Network, internet, 5-11-2003, (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/C/htmlC/cablenewsne/cablenewsne.htm).
- Barbetta, I., The CNN role in the global market of news broadcasting, internet, 5-11-2003, (http://www.medialaw.it/Radiotv/Approfondimenti/barbetta.htm).
