Tonight's Top Story: Commercial Content in Television News:

While marketers look for creative ways to promote products on television, critics suggest the integrity of television news is being compromised by commercial content. This exploratory study investigates local and national news programming on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, and CNN for evidence of two commercial practices: unpaid brand/company content and cross-promotion with other station shows and services. The content analysis confirms that a substantial amount of commercial content exists; however, programs differ greatly in the amount and types of commercial content featured. Local news programs were found to have significantly more commercial content than their national counterparts. Television is commonly believed to be the chief agent that has ushered in the current age of consumption.1 Over the course of a year, the average American watches 1,550 hours of television programming and is exposed to approximately 38,000 commercials.2 Even with eleven minutes of paid advertisements during the average prime-time hour,3 marketers continue to look for new avenues to increase company and brand exposure within television programs. While marketers look for creative ways to display their products (e.g., through product placements, sponsorship models), critics suggest that the integrity of television-and TV news in particular-is being compromised by commercial content.4 Although researchers have investigated brand appearances in novels, songs, and plays,5 in movies,6 and on television in general/ no studies to date have systematically examined the prevalence of commercial content in television news. This exploratory study investigates local and national news programming in a Midwest market for evidence of two commercial practices: (1) unpaid brand/company content appearing within the news, and (2) cross-promotion with other shows or services that benefit the news organization or its corporate owner. Specifically, the study attempts to quantify how prevalent unpaid commercial content is within television news programming, where in the newscast it is most likely to appear, and which classes of companies and brands are most strongly represented. News content is an important medium to examine because it presents an effective source of political information, keeping citizens informed of public affairs issues.8 Through an analysis of the American Citizen Participation Study,9 Norris found support for the claim that news programming may benefit the health of society.10 Yet, some critics have called television news "infotainment," and others have pointed to its increasingly commercial nature.11 The current study has value for two important reasons, both related to the role of news in a modern democracy. First, if commercial content is prominent in news programming as critics claim, less time will be available for other news stories. News stories potentially more critical to democracy (e.g., government, public affairs) might be shortened or cut in order to allow for commercial content. This could lead to a less-informed citizenry, which ultimately could cause democracy to suffer. Secondly, if television news is saturated with commercial content, it may have psychological effects that undermine citizens' civic-mindedness. That is, commercially oriented television news content may cultivate materialist values that could lead viewers to perceive consumption behavior as more important than social or political engagement. Literature Review Several factors inside and outside the newsroom likely affect news content, including media routines, the communicator (e.g., ideology, professionalism), extra-media factors (e.g., advertisers, competitors, the economic environment), and the news organization itself (e.g., corporate ownership patterns).12 Some suggest that commercial content on television has increased as a result of new media ownership patterns that feature horizontal and vertical integration between content producers, media organizations, and technology companies, as well as the general rise of conglomeration (e. …