Out of work and on the air: Television news of unemployment

Issues concerning the ideological role of television are examined through a study of television news coverage of unemployment during the first six months of 1983. The study focuses on the explanations of unemployment contained in the coverage and the thematic structure of the news stories. The stories were found to contain few explicit explanations, but a diversity of thematic structures revealed the societal frameworks within which television journalists construct stories about this issue. The diversity of thematic structures raises questions as to whether television acts as disseminator of a “dominant ideology” or as a “cultural forum.”