This Is Not CNN

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The White House or the U.S. President is not the only brick in news coverage, but is definitely its brick and mortar.  Therefore, the sitting president’s calibre can determine the number of viewers that tune in to CNN, and news channels in general.

The voracious use of Twitter obviously has a negative impact on television ratings because it is faster than news bulletins and CNN’s six figure analysis panels, an attempt at rainbow opinion presentation. 
The president said or did something.  Is it credible?  Is it not? Five or six people at the anchor’s desk give their analysis.  Such panel discussions can be redundant, bearing in mind that Twitter already has 2,000 comments since the story broke 30 minutes ago.

Television is synonymous with numbers.  Shows are taken off the air if they don’t garner impressive numbers.  What is missing from ratings is the public’s attitude to the sitting president.  Are more people watching news channels because of the president or are there less viewers? 
If numbers are diminishing, what is the reason?  Do they feel he has nothing new to say?  Does his choice of words offend them?  Is he contradictory?  Do they like the humorous angle of White House news served by talk show hosts like Trevor Noah or Paul Mecurio?  Does his spouse contribute to increasing or falling viewership?

Social media has changed the rules of the game.  Ratings should also.  They can no longer be packed in tidy boxes like age, gender and race.  Sitting presidents positively or negatively affect the number of news consumers, and there must be some strategy of monitoring that.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.




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