More Than ‘Just Advisers’

Consultants who worked with local television news stations starting in the 1960s promoted themselves as objective outsiders who merely interpreted audience sentiment. Yet that description mischaracterized their role and undersold their impact. These journalistic outsiders were not objective, and their influence was significant. They imported an audience-centered approach to evaluating on-air talent that disrupted broadcast news. Through archival research of audience reports spanning the years 1963–1979, this study examines how McHugh and Hoffman (M&H), the first news consulting firm, helped stations identify their core audience and cater to viewer preferences and tastes in newscasters. M&H pushed newsroom leaders to consider how to make journalists marketable to lower-middle class viewers. Consultants’ advice on how to come across as authoritative and likable helped to shape journalists’ on-air presentation and reinforce restrictive norms for appearance and vocal delivery

Journalism · News media · Reality tv · Management and Organizational Studies · Media Studies and Communication · Public Relations and Crisis Communication