The Atlantic – Carolyn Deady: How the Fall of the Soviet Union Changed the News Media
This post is part of a 12-part series exploring how the U.S.-Russia relationship has shaped the world since the December 1991 end of the Soviet Union. Read the full series here.
Source: The Atlantic, 19 of Dec 2011
ASP Senior Fellow Carolyn Deady is a featured author.
International media coverage of the historic events in Moscow on December 25, 1991, was a first for world broadcast news. Earlier in the year, Ted Turner’s Cable News Network had a television news victory. A decade after its founding, CNN, surpassed the “Big Three” American networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — in ratings with its coverage from inside Iraq during the Gulf War. The 24-hour news network had come into its own. That Christmas Day, CNN got its next major scoop in Moscow.
In the days before the Internet, cell phones, social media, texting, and tweeting, the world got its news from television networks, newspapers, and magazines, often with a lag time of at least a day. But, on Christmas day 1991, people could watch history happen, right in front of them on their TV screens.
This article is available online here.
