Newscast

Hoskins, A. (2008) Newscast. In: Donsbach, W. (ed.) The International Encyclopaedia of Communication. Wiley-Blackwell: Malden, MA.. ISBN 9781405131995

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Abstract

The newscast has anchored broadcast media schedules since their invention and has delivered mundane and momentous news and information daily from near and far, entwining itself with society, culture, and the politics of the day. Synonymous with the great conflicts and crises of mediated history – particularly US-centered history – the televisual nightly newscast has embedded itself into the narrative of nations (and even, at times, their conscience), connecting an apparently simultaneous, unified, and collective audience (→ Television: Social History ). For instance, the long US military involvement in Vietnam became known as “the living-room war” because this was where the consciousness of the nation was deemed to reside. Partly, it was the arbiters of late twentieth-century mediated events, and notably network television's heyday – the news anchors – that provided daily continuity, ritual, and reassurance to millions of viewers across the States, helping to contain and negotiate a way forward through even the most catastrophic and anxiety-provoking news. The nightly news format, its success and potential power, epitomized in the Oscar-laden 1976 movie Network , became a global format, mimicked in countries around the world.

Item Type:Book Sections (Encyclopaedia entry)
Additional Information:The International Encyclopaedia of Communication is a 12 volume set (also available online). More precise details regarding this item were not available at the time of addition to Enlighten.
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Hoskins, Professor Andrew
Authors: Hoskins, A.
College/School:College of Social Sciences
Publisher:Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN:9781405131995

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