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Perceptions of Advertising Influence on Broadcast News

This article reviews the results of a comparison between student and practitioner attitudes regarding advertising influence on broadcast news content. Much has been written about the pressures advertisers place on news organizations in general and television news in particular, both overt pressure on story selection and slant, and the more subtle but no less important pressures brought to bear by an emphasis on ratings supremacy. This study seeks to explore the following research question: On the topic of advertising influence on broadcast news content, how do the opinions of college students studying broadcast journalism or advertising compare to those of practitioners already working in the broadcast journalism and advertising fields? If the students’ opinions differ significantly from those of practitioners in the students’ chosen field, the discrepancies might raise some questions about curriculum issues. Accordingly, this exploratory study also discusses the implications suggested for communications educators.