Descriptive Study Of Recall Of Local And Network News Anchors And Their Association To Television Affiliates And Networks
INTRODUCTION
Since the dawn of network television news in 1944, the news anchor behind the news desk was in a position to influence audiences. The anchor was the person Americans trusted and depended on to deliver the nightly news. CBS, NBC and ABC created the anchor person who influenced the way the American public received its news. These three networks continue to provide the nightly news to millions of Americans in thirty-minute time periods. The anchors who represent the big three networks are icons to the public (Diamond, 1986). The news coverage may be the same on the three networks on any given night, but the messengers are quite different. Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw may appear to be three white middle aged males, but their differences go beyond the surface. And the audience, subconsciously, knows this. Viewers have read the implicit iconography of the evening news and aligned themselves in accordance with their understanding of...