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CNN's Reduced Window on the World 

by Ken Sanes
August 15, 2001

Many viewers of CNN Headline News have had a new and not entirely pleasant experience since August 6. In place of the TV image they are used to, Headline News is now offering them an "improved" format that may well be the worst development since reality television. 

With the new format, Headline News viewers find themselves looking at a screen that is divided into three main sections, much like a web page that is divided into frames. The largest section in the upper right is a reduced version of what used to be the full TV image, where the anchor and the news stories appear. Beneath this main window and to the left are two additional sections full of relatively static and context-free information such as temperatures, news summaries, computer-generated graphics and bits of text that relate to the main story.

Why has Headline News gone with such a radical new format? The answer is that AOL Time Warner, which owns both CNN and CNN Headline News, is hoping the change will enlarge its ad revenues by appealing to much-desired younger viewers. It's goal is to keep things exciting and in motion by converting news into a multi-media kaleidoscope full of enticing images, text and music. In addition, it is including brief stories and lifestyle-oriented subjects that it believes will appeal to its intended audience. If all that sounds familiar it is because TV commercials do much the same thing.

An advertisement for the new Headline News that has run on its sister station, CNN, unmistakably reveals what AOL hopes to accomplish with these changes. The ad presents an idealized depiction of the kind of young people Headline News wants to attract, living glamorous, cutting edge, lifestyles in ultra-modern settings. In a quick succession of images, we see them playing a guitar, driving off in an open sports car, and watching TV in an ultra-modern setting that could almost come out of the Jetsons.

As various images of these young people rush by, the speaker in the ad tells viewers: "In the next 15 minutes a new look will go from outrage to all the rage....In the next 15 minutes, start cookin'. Get hot-wired. Shift into fifth gear. Now, lifestyle news that fits your ever-changing life so you know an enduring trend from a passing fad. In the next 15 minutes: CNN Headline News. Real News. Real Fast."

A press release on the changes echoes these themes. It quotes a Headline News executive as saying that viewers are "Time Warriors" who "who do more, manage more and make more decisions, all in the course of a day". And it promises that Headline News will give them information "in a way that suits the urgency of their schedules. It is news to live by and news at the speed of life."

So far, the new Headline News hasn't lived up (or down) to those descriptions because it is mostly a hokier and somewhat more sensationalized version of the same old news, with a new package. But it is revealing to see what AOL Time Warner is promising audiences with this. In essence, it is connecting Headline News with the celebration of youth, speed, technology, success and constant change. The news program, as it defines it, is like a music video that invites audiences to immerse themselves in the sensations and rhythm produced by their television set, instead of challenging them to think about what is happening in the world. 

Unfortunately, AOL Time Warner's promise of dizzying speed and a divided screen is part of a permanent change in the news business. Over the years, the media has divided the flow of time in the newscast into ever smaller bits of news and it has similarly divided the space of the screen with various kinds of text and graphics. The goal is to keep viewers occupied with multiple forms of stimulation so they won't change the channel with their remotes. Throw in a false sense of drama and you have a formula that can temporarily hold viewers who might otherwise go elsewhere. The new Headline News is just an obvious example of these changes because it is formally dividing the screen into sections of quickly changing content.

The most visible competitor for CNN and CNN Headline News, namely Fox, is doing a variation on the same thing. It's formula includes emotionally charged debates in which antagonists embody caricatured political roles, sensationalism, and rapid-fire news full of shifting images. Headline News is clearly trying to meet Fox and other cable networks on their own turf in what could turn out to be a battle between media giants for who can sensationalize, exploit special effects, and dumb down the farthest, first. 

Will Headline News' strategy work? Given cable's reduced audiences, the network only has to attract a relatively small share of viewers to make its new strategy successful. So it may well find a formula that gets the audience and profits it is seeking, particularly given the susceptibility of many young people raised on television's special effects to the kind of ersatz excitement being offered.

On the other hand, it is difficult to understand why viewers of any age would be attracted to a reduced viewing screen or the opportunity to switch to reading text as they watch television images. The fact that people don't like frames on their computer monitor also suggests they won't go for a similar approach on TV.

But AOL's strategy isn't pegged to just this change since it is making other alterations, as well, both to CNN Headline News and to CNN. It has hired actress Andrea Thompson, known for her role on "NYPD Blue" as a Headline News anchor and it has made a print journalist, Walter Isaacson, of Time magazine, chairman and chief executive officer of the CNN News Group. While that may help it retain a degree of editorial quality, the trend so far is to heightened sensationalism on both CNN and CNN Headline News.

CNN also plans to occupy studio space with one or more windows that look out onto New York City. That, very likely, means some of its news programs will include the sight of crowds of people trying to get on television by posing in front of the studio window. CNN may then inadvertently give us a view of what is really happening in society, as it shows us a throng of humanity expressing its fervent desire to get inside the scripted world of celebrity and illusion.

Unfortunately, what is being lost amid all these gimmicks is any sense of journalism's special mission, which is to provide a coherent account of events, and offer insight and investigations into how power is used and misused in society. In place of that special mission and the essential role it plays in democracy, we are being given a form of news that bears less and less of a relationship to the actual events it is supposed to cover. Instead of describing events, it merely uses events as its raw material.  In the light of these failures, the shrunken window on the Headline News screen may turn out to be an ideal metaphor for the reduced view of the world that TV news increasingly offers its audience.

- - - - - -

Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times: All Headlines, No News; So This Is Progress?

Monica Collins at the Boston Herald: Surreal News. Real Fast: CNN Headline show follows local telecasts' lead and loses content amid gimmicks

Notes:

* The more things change, the more things stay the same. The ad for Headline News celebrates themes that were common to Futurism in the early years of the 20th Century - youth, change, technology, progress, and power. It also depicts modernist settings and advanced technology that lend a sense of glamour to the young people pictured. Similar modernist settings have been associated with wealth, progress and the avant-garde for many decades. These are potent symbols that AOL Time Warner knows how to exploit to sell its product.

* These words from the ad are particularly telling: "Now, lifestyle news that fits your ever-changing life so you know an enduring trend from a passing fad."  Apparently, the new Headline News tries so hard to be on the cutting edge, it can no longer help viewers distinguish enduring facts and values from mere trends. Now, it promises only to help them distinguish the "enduring trend from a passing fad". Trends, it seems, are about as enduring as things get in this new world of constant change. 

* Here is how a press release describes the changes at Headline News:

More news, more quickly - Every minute counts to the Headline News viewer, and the network’s goal is to provide news that people want at the "speed of life." Stories will be fast-paced and immediate and, in addition to breaking news, will cover subjects important to Time Warriors, such as health, technology, entertainment, environment, sports and money.

New dynamic and colorful on-screen look – The new Headline News on-air screen gives viewers a range of information at a glance. The new screen will offer market news, sports and weather "below the fold" with headlines and an anchor box "above the fold." Custom-built software, created specifically for Headline News, features variations of bold colors that will change throughout the day consistent with different dayparts.

"News in the round" studio – A new state-of-the-art, circular studio will enable five to six anchors to be on set at all times and will showcase the reporting strengths of the anchors. Seventeen cameras will capture the interaction among anchors.

New anchor teams - The new Headline News anchors will be part of new teams assigned to each daypart. Once the network is fully staffed, at least four anchors will be in the studio at any given time over the course of 18 hour each day and will interact each other on stories as stories develop.

More live, breaking news - Live reporting will be reinforced through "just-in" segments and instant, live reports from the Headline News anchors during breaking news periods.

New Music - Modern and international sounds are part of original music, created by composer Stephen Arnold, a 20-year veteran of producing music for news. The diverse rotation of original music is tailored to specific types of news, such as breaking news and sports updates."

Here is more information taken from a press release:

The new Headline News, which debuts Monday, Aug. 6, will feature a multi-element screen unlike any other on television today.

The screen is driven by custom-designed software that allows five separate streams of information to appear on air at once. Most important, the software enables multiple producers to work on elements of the screen simultaneously rather than sequentially, which means that these multiple streams of information can be on air much more quickly than would be possible using traditional production methods.

'The screen gives viewers a range of information at a glance without being overwhelming or confusing,' said Teya Ryan, executive vice president and general manager of CNN Headline News. 'The screen has bold colors and graphics that are well-organized and can complement the screen’s video elements. It’s fast-paced, lively and compelling.'

The screen is organized into a top half– 'above the fold' - and a lower half– 'below the fold.' Viewers will see anchors and video along with textual information above the fold. Below the fold, they’ll see financial, sports and weather information, including a weather map. The elements are always consistently placed so that viewers don’t have to search for information or news....

The new software sets the stage for multi-platform delivery of news and information from Headline News. In the future, the information may be quickly and easily delivered to, for example, the Internet or hand-held devices such as cell phones."