Zombie TV has come for cable
Media statistic of the week
This week’s stat has to do with the most buzzed about topic in 2023: AI.
“An overwhelming majority of readers would like news publishers to tell them when AI has shaped the news coverage they’re seeing. But, new research finds, news outlets pay a price when they disclose using generative AI,” writes Nieman Lab’s Sarah Scire.
Scire previews data from new research from University of Minnesota’s Benjamin Toff and Oxford Internet Institute’s Felix M. Simon titled “‘Or they could just not use it?’: The paradox of AI disclosure for audience trust in news.”
Here’s an interesting finding:
“Confirming previous studies, Toff and Simon found an overwhelming majority believed news organizations should ‘alert readers or viewers that AI was used’ — more than 80% across all respondents. Among those who said they wanted to see a disclosure, 78% said news organizations ‘should provide an explanatory note describing how AI was used.’”
This past week in the media industry
‘Zombie TV’ has come for cable
A fascinating read from The New York Times’ John Koblin about the “zombie” transformation of once bustling cable TV channels like USA, TBS and more.
Here’s a snippet from the piece that details the rise, fall and changes that have come as people’s TV watching preferences have shifted.
“Instead of standing out among its peers, USA is emblematic of cable television’s transformation. Many of the most popular channels — TBS, Comedy Central, MTV — have quickly morphed into zombie versions of their former selves.
Networks that were once rich with original scripted programming are now vessels for endless marathons of reruns, along with occasional reality shows and live sports. While the network call letters and logos are the same as before, that is effectively where the overlap stops.”
“Stranded assets in cable: cord-cutting means lower budgets means elimination of original programming. Cable nets are just rerun factories, which makes them unattractive to viewers, meaning more cord-cutting. Next up in stranded assets: oil and gas,” writes David Dayen on X.
“Cable TV has gone from zombie shows to zombie networks,” tweets Felix Gillette.
News industry job cuts in 2023
It has been a disappointing year when it comes to job cuts in the news industry.
According to a new report by employment firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, the news industry has seen 2,681 job cuts so far this year (including broadcast, digital and print).
Here’s even more sobering news from the report: The news sector has lost more jobs this year through November than it did in all of 2022 or 2021, writes Angela Fu for Poynter.
Journalists on X were quick to respond.
“The media industry losing more than 20K jobs so far in 2023 is absolutely insane, and one of the reasons I'm trying to build something new, outside of the traditional media biz model,” tweets Dan Ackerman.
“The media industry cut 20,000 jobs(!!) just in 2023. Twenty thousand. What a nightmare scenario for the industry as a whole and for all involved in being laid off. Not to mention college students and grads who plan to enter the media industries,” adds Jaime Black.
A few more
What will the journalism industry look like in 2024? Nieman Lab asked some of the smartest people in journalism for their predictions.
“I’m not just covering the news – I’m living it,” says Plestia Alaqad, a citizen journalist in Gaza who has been covering the war on her Instagram. The Guardian’s Ruth Michaelson profiles Alaqad and the other citizen journalists on the ground in Gaza.
Amazon announced the launch of a new feature, Your Books, “which will organize all the books you’ve bought, borrowed, or saved, including print books, as well as Amazon’s Kindle and Audible titles,” reports TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez.
Inquiring minds have wondered for years about the stats behind their favorite Netflix shows. Now that information is going to become a lot more public. “Netflix is going to start publishing a new report twice a year that details the most popular shows and movies on the platform,” writes Jay Peters for The Verge. The first one released this week—check it out.
In another signal that AI is here for good, the New York Times has hired its first newsroom leader focused on artificial intelligence. Quartz co-founder Zach Seward will join The Times as editorial director of artificial-intelligence initiatives, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Alexandra Bruell.
Golden Globe nominations were announced on Monday morning. Leading the nominations? “Barbie and Succession each took nine noms in the film and TV categories, respectively,” Hilary Lewis from The Hollywood Reporter reports.
WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner is ready to tell her story. “Griner will give Disney the exclusive rights to share her story via a documentary feature from ESPN Films, the development of a scripted series through ABC Signature and an exclusive interview with ABC News anchor Robin Roberts,”Brian Steinberg for Variety writes.
From the Muck Rack team
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