Methods of Development in "Television News"

One method of development used in John Haslett Cuff’s essay “Television News” is example. Throughout the essay, Cuff gives many examples of ways in which television is, “[serving] both the corporate and political elites.” In paragraph two of “Television News,” the author makes note of the “planned and staged event” and its contribution to the sameness of all news sources. Cuff immediately relates this example back to the thesis by using parallel ‘manufacturing’ language, and connecting it to politicians. To further develop his thesis, the author cites a television journalist who conforms to his idea, summing it up by stating that news “is bureaucratic.” Supplementing this idea, Cuff explores the manufacturing of news through the example of political news conferences. When the essay flows into the second section, the author begins to focus on examples pertaining specifically to the medium of television, as opposed to media in general. Cuff notes how “numbingly similar” images are every night, and further enforces his thesis by elaborating on the “reduction of information” through the running of the same story on every newscast. The use of example in “Television News” is significant to the development of the thesis as it allows Cuff to not only establish television’s “technical superiority and popular ascendance” but also to fully explain, in a context that all television viewers could relate to, how this medium is wasting its potential, and instead “preshrinking news.” In the context of “Television News”, the use of example is necessary as a reader would not feel the thesis was adequately proven without specific reference to ways in which the news is a “slave of format.”

As well as example, Cuff also makes use of persuasion in “Television News.” The essay is written in a way that the reader slowly conforms to the ideas presented, which is done through many types of claims, as well as logos, ethos, and pathos. In the first paragraph, Cuff plays to ethos by referring to television as a “slave.” This terminology also appears as a claim of values, bringing about humanity’s adverse opinions on slavery. Logos appears in tandem with the example method of development, as Cuff presents numerous facts and evidence relating to television’s “preshrinking of news.” He notes the sameness of television, the “newshound” reporters, the numbingly similar images, as well as specific news examples in the forms of The New Yorker and W5. This immediately establishes a credibility and knowledge of the topic, which makes the reader trust in the authors authority on the matter. Cuff makes claims of policy, but presents them in a cynical context, which gives the reader a negative view of the policy of news. By stating the preparedness of most conferences, the reader is forced to doubt the truth behind their information, and makes the ache for television news “to escape the tyranny of its hidebound formulas.” Finally, Cuff adds to his persuasion by employing pathos. By relating his topic and thesis back to the lives of humans, the reader instantly wishes for change. Posing the idea that news “rule[s] and homogenize[s] our lives” appeals to the human side of the thesis, and allows the reader to combine the emotional argument with the logical one to fully persuade them to conforming to Cuff’s own ideas. It is evident that persuasion is highly effective in proving his thesis, as Cuff feels so confident that he has done so, he spends the entire last paragraph posing rhetorical questions whose answers require either accepting or rejecting the thesis. Having been unsure if his essay was persuasive enough to convince an audience his ideas are true, one would highly doubt he would include such a personal ending.