Watching CNN for a full hour really allows the viewer to understand how news stories are written for television and the difference between them and print news. With images constantly changing, it gives the writer more opportunity to touch on many different subjects without using as many words. It is also much easier to keep the viewer interested because they are listening to somebody speak while looking at images as opposed to reading everything themselves. It is much easier to keep my attention after one sentence if I have something to look at and it is being read to me than if I just read one sentence.
Most of the writing that was being done was written specifically to the images that were shown. The usual setup was for the anchor to give a brief description to drag the audience in before they launched the story. When the story begins they usually pan to an image while they speak about it, as it slowly zooms in. For example, there was a brief story about Fred Duval whom has been beside Senator Giffords’ side since the tragic shooting earlier this year. They say that there are rumors of Duval running for Senate, which he dismisses as he says that she is the best option for the state of Arizona. As they spoke about the speed at which Giffords is recovering, they showed an image of her smiling the entire time, slowly zooming in on the image.
The stories are written in active voice. Sometimes the anchors would go out of active voice, but on the most part they spoke actively. For example, when speaking about Dancing With the Stars on Monday night, they said that Kirstie Allen took a spill on dancing with the stars. They did an excellent job using active words and not adding pointless words or changing tenses too often.
On the most part, the leads are usually interesting. The stories that were shown varied in their interest level. On a news network, I would not expect them to speak as much as they did about celebrity and irrelevant news. They spent time discussing Dancing With the Stars, tons of little fish swarming Vilano Beach in Florida (which apparently happens every year), Kate Middleton and Prince William not signing a prenuptial agreement, and the story of Jerry Weintraub, a Hollywood director. There are much more important things that CNN could be discussing such as the possibility of a United States government shutdown (which they did a short story on), Obama declaring he will run for re-election, an update on the labor union crisis in the North, or anything involving Libya. One story I did find interesting was about 9/11 suspects who will be tried at Guantanamo Bay despite Obama shutting down the detention center and saying all of these criminals would be tried in the United States since the very beginning of his presidency.
Lastly, there is a lot more opinion involved in this type of reporting, especially by the news anchors. Whenever a story finished, they would comment on it and give their opinions about what they thought. This is more plausible and acceptable on a lesser partisan channel like CNN than it would be on a network like FOX.
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