TV Research: Anderson Cooper 360This paper shall cover the Anderson Cooper 360 show and shall shed light on different areas of the show.
Under the daylight savings time, Anderson Cooper 360 airs daily at 2 PM according to Chicago time and features host Anderson Hays Cooper. The show is divided into a number of segments. The show is based on a number of different segments. Amongst others, there is the strategy session in which Anderson cooper talks to correspondents and analysts around the world and takes their opinion on incidents and accidents related to international politics.
There is the segment popularly referred to as keeping them honest, which delves into the latest of measures and actions taken by the government and takes a critical look at their feasibility.There is the segment crime and punishment takes a look at high level corruption and crime. There is the 360 Bulletin which serves to provide a brief summary of the news highlights for the day. There is the segment the shot serves as a relief from the seriousness of the show and constitutes of jocular images or video clips from across the world.
There is the segment called what were they thinking features stories that are of an unusual nature. There is the segment Beat 360 integrates the website of the program into the show and serves to provide another twist of humor to the show. The last segment on the show is Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless which is a recent addition to the show and serves to bring to light the lives of rich people from the corporate world (CNN, 2009).1.
Central Issue of the showUpon viewing numerous episodes of the show, the issues seemed to concentrate extensively on the element of terrorism and the implications of terrorism on the lives of the everyday American. The show covered numerous different news items but a vast majority of them seemed to be related to be the numerous elements that terrorize the everyday life of the common man and how it in turn serves to take effects on society.2. Fact/Opinion Oriented CoverageNot only in the above mentioned issue, but in other issues as well, the news coverage on Anderson Cooper 360 is one that seems to follow a particular approach.
Anderson Cooper first presents a brief report on the subject of the news and continues to supplement it through external sources. He then makes sure that he provides the audience with an interview with a personality that can provide an opinion and a bit of a discussion on the show (Harrison). If one was to switch from Anderson Cooper 360 to other news channels to witness coverage from the same news, it is fairly easy to see that Anderson Cooper makes sure he covers the news subject completely and it is not until the interview of a news correspondent or a credible personality that the show begins to develop an opinion of sorts (Watson).3.
Coverage of the Root Causes of the ProblemAnderson Cooper 360 makes sure that once the subject of the news has been introduced to the audience a brief report is presented in which the origins and causes of the problem are covered. The show goes on to present the analysis of the current state of the subject of the news. 4. General Observation from the 10 BroadcastsAfter having watch 10 broadcasts of the show, the general observation made as a result was that the team of Anderson Cooper 360 puts excruciating effort in putting together a news report that can cover the news and that the integration of the website with the show serves to make the show highly complex and just as entertaining at the same time.
Anderson Cooper himself in particular was observed to be a news reporter who chose to provide his audience with the complete picture and went to immense lengths to cover the story as best and comprehensively as possible. This led to the show providing either second editions to previous news reports or referring the audience to alternate news sources such as websites and books if they wished to acquire detailed information about a news subject.5. Alternate media sources for the information on the showSince Anderson Cooper 360 provides audience with a blend of news segments, it will be next to impossible to find a media source that is non-electronic that can be trusted to provide the same news that Anderson Cooper 360 does.
The fact that the show almost always brings in an outsider to give their opinion the subject of the news and presents a comprehensive and concise report on the news subject also gives the show its particular appeal. If one was to scour the internet for a news report as comprehensive as that of Anderson Cooper 360, it would take up a significant degree of searching to acquire all the information. This gives Anderson Cooper 360 another edge that many other shows lack. The show is based on extensive research and this allows the show to bring the audience to a point where they can form their own opinion and can continue to develop their perception about a news item (Anderson and Benjaminson).
6. Suggestions for the News Director of this programUpon close observation of the show, it was clear that while the show served to present an excellent picture of the present state of affairs of the subject of the news, there is still a considerable lack in the area of the analysis of the root cause of the problems that the show chooses to tackle. Also, a highly important observation that was made was that even though the show was broadcasted over international television, the news items constituting the show were those that were imperative to the US. Major issues that were or a nature where they were of no significant importance to the US were not covered with the depth that they deserved.
The fact that the show contains a number of different segments does serve to make the show more entertaining, however the inclusion of segments such as the shot, beat 360 and lifestyles of the rich and shameless deprives Anderson Cooper 360 of the tone of seriousness that one would expect it to maintain. While one light segment would have been more than enough to provide the audience with a bit of a break from the regular news, the presence of three such segments serves to give the show a feel similar to that of a magazine that supplements with a newspaper. The newspaper being the CNN broadcast, and Anderson Cooper 360 being the magazine. Works CitedAnderson, David and Peter Benjaminson.
Investigative reporting. Indiana University Press, 1976.CNN. “AC360o”.
2009. <http://ac360.blogs.cnn.
com/>Harrison, Martin. TV News, Whose Bias?: A Casebook Analysis of Strikes, Television and Media Studies. Transaction Publishers, 1985.Watson, Stephanie.
Anderson Cooper: Profile of a TV Journalist. London: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2007.
