According to an outfit called Snapstream, there may be more substance in our network newscasts than TV journalists generally get credit for.
In its news release, Snapstream says it is a “service we run that lets you see how often words are mentioned, over time, on national TV news. We record and analyze transcripts from national TV news programs on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, MSNBC and CNN.”
So maybe “Balloon Boy” and Michael Jackson aren’t items vital to the national interest, but most of the topics listed truly are.
The researchers also found that Twitter was mentioned more than 20,000 times on these national shows, and while the references to the economy were dominant early in 2009, the topic of health care was mentioned far more often toward the end of the year.
There’s not much about the research methodology on the site, so take these results with the proverbial grain of salt.
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