The Changing Face of Television News


The call letters for North American radio and television stations depend on which side of the Mississippi you are on. Stations west of the Big Muddy, like channel 5 Kansas City, begin with a K; those east of the Mississippi, like channel 5 Chicago, begin with a W. When it comes to the internet, however, the only thing a news station needs, like channel 5 Chicago, is a URL.

According to Pew Research Center data, Americans are more often turning to television and internet sources for news than from radio or newspapers. For American adults aged 30 and younger, 34 percent saw the previous days news on television akin to local news stations and network affiliates like channel 5 Chicago, Memphis news channel 5, or Nashville channel 5; 33 percent saw the news from a social networking site, and a mere 13 percent read the news from either a digital or print newspaper. With the changing trends in news consumption, will television news stations like My Fox 5 and Fox News 5 adapt accordingly?

Traditional news formats, like channel 5 Chicago and Action News 5 Memphis are still viable, as long as they keep pace with technology. In addition to the internet, the advent of mobile technology is also changing the face of television news. In fact, more than half of all American adults now have a mobile connection to the internet, and news viewing appears to be what most people do on their mobile devices; 64 percent of tablet owners and 62 percent of smartphone users search for news at least weekly on their devices. A whopping 73 percent of mobile users are not just reading channel 5 Chicago news headlines; they are also using their mobile devices to read in depth news articles.

To better accommodate the market of the third biggest city in the country, channel 5 Chicago, for example, has three different mobile apps for its news consumer. Channel 5 Chicago has a mobile app for the iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms, all of which allow users to view and search local Channel 5 Chicago news. Internet and mobile technology enables stations like channel 5 Chicago to provide its viewers and readers with up to the minute local, national, and international news.