ABSTRACT
Perhaps no area of mass media marketing has generated more unresolved controversy than that of the promotion and marketing of broadcast news (Barnow, 1966; Spragens, 1995). Conflicts between objective journalism, or the role of the media as a “fourth estate” of government, and the marketing strategies required for audience acquisition, audience retention, and revenue maximization during news programming appeared as issues in the very earliest literature of broadcasting and journalism (Lippmann, 1922). Discussion of these issues has been addressed in foundational scholarly research (see Bogart, 1980) and has served as the basis for fictional plots for such contemporary mainstream entertainment as the movies Network and Broadcast News as well as episodes of such television programs as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Murphy Brown, and NewsRadio.
