From the ’60s till now, TV news coverage of large-scale university protests doesn’t look so different

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Lisa Fazio, Vanderbilt University

(THE CONVERSATION) While much has changed over the past 50 years, evening television news remains a prominent source of information for Americans.

I am a scholar of psychology and study how people learn information from the world around them. I was struck by how the recent televised segments of college campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza brought to mind images from other student movements in the United States – particularly the widespread campus protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In 1969, 47% of Americans preferred to get their news from television, as opposed to newspapers, magazines and radio.

In 2023, only 27% of Americans said they liked to get their regular news from TV. However, over 60% of Americans still reported at least sometimes getting their news from television. So, nightly TV news coverage of the recent student protests is still influential in helping people learn about and understand current events.

Looking through the archives

Since August 1968, the Vanderbilt Television News Archive has been recording the daily evening news programs from ABC, CBS and NBC, with CNN and Fox News as more recent...