Tony Garcia
Nightline Television
The United States of America is a military power, and with such a reputation comes responsibility. In 1979, the Iran Hostage Crisis caused a spectacle like few other events had at the time. It was this situation that President Carter found himself in that created late-night news.
The United States is known for having military alliances all over the world, even in some questionable times. This was evident at the time as President Carter had an alliance with the Shah of Iran. While many advised against it, President Carter had the Shah visit the United States which created much tension in both countries.
Throughout this time there was much unrest in Iran, in particular with the Shah. However, Carter chose not to intervene, as his “commitment to human rights overrode Brzezinski’s (United States National Security Advisor) concerns that the shah could be toppled.” He was advised to seek communication with Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, however not wanting to be perceived as the president who “lost Iran,” refused to cut his ties with the Shah.
It was just about a year later, Jan 16. 1979, when the Shah fled Iran. The Ayatollah came in from Paris to Terhan and began his de-facto time in power. Throughout his time, there were still militant and radical groups that existed in Iran that were furious about the Shah leaving.
It was then on Nov. 4, 1979 that a group of Iranian students, that belonged to the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, a group in support of the Iranian Revolution, overthrew the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The 52 American hostages remained trapped in the Embassy for 444 days.
The media had a field day with this event. Fueled by the American public, people were demanding to know what exactly was going on in the situation. However, while the newscasts ended at night, the action did not. There was no late night newscast, but there was such a demand for late night news during this time that ABC News created a nighttime news show called ‘Nightline’.
Nightline was so successful because “it was produced each day with live elements made possible by new satellite technology.” Nowadays, people take the news for granted. It feels as if any news we wanted has always been at the tips of our fingers, however that was not the case.
During this time there were not hundreds of news outlets like there are now. There wasn’t even CNN, to give you an idea of how narrow the scope of media was. Since there were only a few outlets, the more information people could get at different times, the more informed they felt.
The public was so concerned with what happened at every turn of this event, that ABC began to broadcast nightly and never looked back. This showed the power that the public had on the media. It demonstrated that this is not a one-way enterprise, but journalism is give and take, and (to a certain extent) this put the audience is in control of what they wanted to hear.
http://media.about.com/od/mediatrends/tp/12-Events-That-Changed-How-Media-Outlets-Cover-News.htm
http://middleeast.about.com/od/usmideastpolicy/a/me090413a.htm
Evolution of News Media 