Tabloid television

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Tabloid television is similar to tabloid newspapers. Tabloid television newscasts usually incorporate flashy graphics and sensationalist stories, some with little or no local relevance. Often, there is a heavy emphasis on crime, stories with good video, and celebrity news. It is a form of infotainment. Tabloid television, like tabloid newspapers, is a product of a commercial media market, it thrives in commercial environments where there is no overbearing cultural standards bodies (such as the BBC Trust and OFCOM in the UK) and the content tends to stem from a need to gain ratings. An example of this is the Fox Network in the United States. Rupert Murdoch's aim to established a fourth commercial broadcast network in the United States, the first for many decades, the strategy was to take the media product down market in order to gain a commercial foothold in the face of heavily financed established media..

The United States is not the only television market with this category of broadcasting - Australia, New Zealand and France to name a few all have tabloid programming that reflects this same down market, sensationalist style of journalism and entertainment.

1 Examples of tabloid television
2 Parodies of news and entertainment
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] Examples of tabloid television

The basic tabloid television format developed on nationally syndicated programs such as Hard Copy, Inside Edition, and A Current Affair which all incorporate flashy graphics with sensational stories. Tabloid talk shows were extremely popular during the end of the 20th century.

Some stations, like CBS owned and operated KYW-TV, air primarily weather and crime stories. Other stations, such as the CBS network flagship station WCBS-TV put their own special programming ahead of hard news. Examples of this are with exclusive "Shame on You" and "Eat At Your Own Risk" segments beating out major stories to top the newscast. One egregious example of their self promotion trend occurred on May 24, 2005. This was the day the United States House of Representatives took a major vote regarding the funding of stem cell research, WCBS led their 11 p.m. newscast with a story and exclusive video of actor Burt Reynolds slapping a CBS producer. Rivals WNBC and WABC led with the stem cell funding vote.

WSVN in Miami, Florida was one of the first stations to popularize the tabloid television in the local news arena.^{[citation needed]} Today, the format is prevalent with FOX affiliates, such as WNYW-TV and WTTG-TV.^{[citation needed]} FOX's parent company News Corporation owns The New York Post, a notorious daily tabloid newspaper.^{[citation needed]}