ABSTRACT
The third most frequently mentioned content issue among nonviewers was the lack of depth in news coverage about politics. News and politics came up spontaneously in 60% of the interviews with nonviewing adults but arose spontaneously in only 10% of the interviews with viewers. From these data, it appears that, whereas both viewers and nonviewers perceive sex, violence, and commercials as content problems, generally only nonviewers perceive television news to be problematic. Viewers rarely made negative comments about the content of television news. If television news did come up among viewers, it was only to mention that they watched it. Therefore, nonviewers are generally dissatisfied with the depth and quality of television news that they have seen. This objection
to television assumes that the defining feature of television is its content. In this chapter, I discuss nonviewers’ perceptions of television news and consider whether or not television can adequately provide for viewers’ information needs.
