Tyndall Report: The History of Saturation Coverage

TYNDALL REPORT: THE HISTORY OF SATURATION COVERAGE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable]
As news broke of the campus shooting at Virginia Tech, the familiar protocols of big-story TV journalism went into effect. Anchors jetted off to Blacksburg, Va., to probe the grief firsthand. Graphics departments churned out strip-formatted logos to brand the coverage. And virtually all other news was ignored to focus on this latest exercise in morbid fascination. But as familiar as these conventions of saturation coverage have become, it wasn't so long ago that a similarly violent tragedy would be considered unworthy of such national obsession. As few as twelve years ago, when violent crime was a bigger public policy issue than it is today, stand-alone crimes, however horrifically lethal, were treated by the networks as local stories. According to an analysis of the top 10 mass shootings covered most heavily by the broadcast networks' nightly newscasts during the past 20 years, nine have occurred within the past decade. Before 1998, only one rose to the level of national coverage: the 1991 shooting of 22 people at Luby's Cafeteria in Killen, Tex. Of the 10 shootings, it was the second deadliest; yet, it ranked last in minutes of coverage. As mass shootings go, the one perpetrated in Virginia was of major proportions and was clearly a newsworthy event. But, should a single criminal act be accorded the newsworthiness of events of national and global scope: a war, a natural disaster, a presidential election campaign, a terrorist attack?
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