{"id":91144,"date":"2002-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-05-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:38","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:38","slug":"the-face-of-morning-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The Face of Morning News"},"content":{"rendered":"

While morning news has softened, it does not strictly resemble its image from last summer. <\/p>\n\n

What were largely lifestyle and celebrity programs last June\u2014and became serious sources of information of overnight events last fall\u2014have now become something of a hybrid. Americans can now see some level of serious news each morning on the networks. <\/p>\n\n

Roughly a quarter of what appears on morning news shows could be categorized as traditional hard news about national and international affairs. That is triple the amount last June, when fewer than one in ten stories (7%) fit that description. <\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, it is still significantly less than the nearly six-in-ten stories (58%) that hard news comprised of morning news in our sample period in October. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Topics on the Morning News Over Time<\/strong>
Percent of Total Stories<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
All Networks<\/td>\nJune ’01<\/td>\nOct ’01<\/td>\nEarly ’02<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hard News<\/td>\n6.9%<\/td>\n58.1%<\/td>\n22.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Homeland Security<\/em><\/td>\nna<\/em><\/td>\nna<\/em><\/td>\n3.6<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Celebrity\/Entertainment<\/td>\n25.3<\/td>\n12.2<\/td>\n20.0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Crime\/Law\/Courts<\/td>\n11.5<\/td>\n1.7<\/td>\n13.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Business\/Economy<\/td>\n4.3<\/td>\n2.6<\/td>\n3.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Science\/Technology<\/td>\n5.1<\/td>\n13.5<\/td>\n1.7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Lifestyle<\/td>\n46.7<\/td>\n12.0<\/td>\n38.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Religion<\/td>\n0.2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

And make no mistake, these morning shows are still dominated by stories about gardening, recipes, celebrity chatter and product promotion. The lifestyle and celebrity fare this year has made up roughly three-fifths (58%) of all morning stories, after dropping to just 24% last fall. That, however, is somewhat lower than last summer, when celebrity and lifestyle stories made up nearly 75% of the morning shows. <\/p>\n\n

Indeed, most of the increase in hard news comes at the expense of lifestyle feature stories. Those stories are down 9 percentage points since June (38% now versus 47% in June). <\/p>\n\n

The quotient of interviews with stars of the latest movies and news of celebrity weddings has declined only slightly, from 25% of the stories in June to 23% this year. <\/p>\n\n

If someone were turning to morning programs for news of the day about a subject such as a bombing in the Middle East, one would also find the style of reporting could shift from day to day or hour to hour. <\/p>\n\n

[features]<\/p>\n\n\n

At times, the coverage consists of live, on-scene reports of the sort seen from Ground Zero following the attacks and Pakistan in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. The Today Show, for exampled, featured Tom Brokaw reporting live from Tel Aviv about a bombing that took place overnight. Or there might be interviews with some of the principal newsmakers such as The Early Show’s interview with the mayor of Netanya where one of the bombings occurred. <\/p>\n\n

Those harder stories, though, are scattered amid a largely human-interest approach to the news. At one point, a morning show might give a detailed news report. Another time, this same news might come in quick anchor reads to make room for any number of a features: Good Morning America’s piece about how children of a war zone live a normal life, an interview on The Early Show with a man who had near misses at both the World Trade Center and the bombing in Jaffe, or correspondent Martin Fletcher’s reflection for the Today Show on what it is like to live in the Middle East.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While morning news has softened, it does not strictly resemble its image from last summer. What were largely lifestyle and celebrity programs last June\u2014and became serious sources of information of overnight events last fall\u2014have now become something of a hybrid. Americans can now see some level of serious news each morning on the networks. Roughly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-91144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":91127,"word_count":500,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":91127,"title":"The War on Terrorism","slug":"the-war-on-terrorism","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-war-on-terrorism\/","is_active":false},{"id":91139,"title":"The Face of Evening News","slug":"the-face-of-evening-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-evening-news\/","is_active":false},{"id":91144,"title":"The Face of Morning News","slug":"the-face-of-morning-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/","is_active":true},{"id":91151,"title":"Month by Month","slug":"month-by-month","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/month-by-month\/","is_active":false},{"id":91160,"title":"Network by Network","slug":"network-by-network","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/network-by-network\/","is_active":false},{"id":90996,"title":"War Coverage","slug":"war-coverage","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/war-coverage\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":91144,"title":"The Face of Morning News","slug":"the-face-of-morning-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},"next_post":{"id":91151,"title":"Month by Month","slug":"month-by-month","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/month-by-month\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},"previous_post":{"id":91139,"title":"The Face of Evening News","slug":"the-face-of-evening-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-evening-news\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"pagination_items":[{"id":91127,"title":"The War on Terrorism","slug":"the-war-on-terrorism","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-war-on-terrorism\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":91139,"title":"The Face of Evening News","slug":"the-face-of-evening-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-evening-news\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":91144,"title":"The Face of Morning News","slug":"the-face-of-morning-news","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/the-face-of-morning-news\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},{"id":91151,"title":"Month by Month","slug":"month-by-month","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/month-by-month\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},{"id":91160,"title":"Network by Network","slug":"network-by-network","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/network-by-network\/","is_active":false,"page_num":5},{"id":90996,"title":"War Coverage","slug":"war-coverage","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2002\/05\/23\/war-coverage\/","is_active":false,"page_num":6}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"The War on Terrorism","parent_id":91127},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"The Face of Morning News","description":"While morning news has softened, it does not strictly resemble its image from last summer. What were largely lifestyle and celebrity programs last June\u2014and became serious sources of information of…","og_title":"The Face of Morning News","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"complete","message":"No image blocks in content.","data":null},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 10 paragraphs.","data":{"count":10}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130754,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91144\/revisions\/130754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=91144"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=91144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}