Comparison of Cable and Broadcast TV Networks - Assignment Example

In an effort to identify the difference between these two networks, I decided to watch two televised newscasts of national news on the same day for both cable news network and broadcast news network. For the cable news network, I decided to watch CNN while I settled on Fox Network for the broadcast news network. After the thirty-minute session, I came up with the following outcomes.
Discussion
The first thing that I noted was that the top stories for both networks differed significantly. I decided to pay attention to the top three news stories for both the Fox Network, which is a broadcast network and for CNN which is a cable network. I noticed that only one story was similar across the board for the two networks. For CNN, the similar story came third while the same story came first in Fox Network. This was a direct implication that the news stories that are covered by both networks are totally different. It is, however, important to note that ordinary viewers may not note this difference because they could be cruising through different stations oblivious of whether it is a cable or broadcast network.
During the session, I also noted that both networks did not give the same weight to similar stories. As already mentioned, one story was broadcasted by both networks. However, Fox made the story their top story while CNN did not accord the same storey equal weight. This is an implication that the two networks were not in communication so as to decide on a single pattern of airing the same story. In addition to that, the comprehensiveness of the story was different for both networks. Fox gave a comprehensive analysis of the story while CNN seemed to provide a mere overview.
When it came to the amount of airtime given to the top three stories, Fox seemed to offer more airtime to its stories as compared to CNN. That notwithstanding, Fox was more comprehensive in analyzing the content of its stories as compared to CNN which seemed to provide a quick overview of the contents. Despite the difference in the airtime accorded for the stories in both networks, I was unable to notice a significant difference in the slant of presentations of the stories aired on that day. In addition to that, the presenters displayed utmost professionalism during their presentation. For this reason, it was difficult to identify a specific utterance that would jeopardize the credibility of either presenter. For a viewer who was not keen on the differences and similarities, the thirty-minute session would seem like any other. For the content and time allocated for every story, I noticed that CNN allocated arguably limited time for stories as compared to Fox. The selection of content also varied significantly.