No More Education News?

I am sure I am the only one to notice this, but CNN has demoted both education and the law*.

Here is the March 2007 news categorization banner: here.

And here is the current, redesigned banner: here.

Why is this important? Well, CNN was the last major news organization whose website had "education" as a separate news category with a direct link from their mainpage. MSNBC, CBSNEWS, ABCNEWS & FOXNEWS never had listed education as a separate classification of news. Usually, education is a subtopic under the "U.S. News" category. Thus, readers of these sites are unlikely to find education news unless they are specifically looking for it. The big education news will still grab the headlines, such as the VT shootings and the Supreme Court decision on Affirmative Action, but lesser known stories will reach fewer news readers.

So, who will report the nation's education news? Well sites run by newspapers are doing a slightly better job. Both the NYTimes and the Washington Post feature education slightly more prominently. However, much of the education news in these papers is specific to the location of the paper and thus, national readers are unlikely to continue to click these sites for their national education news needs.

None of this is anything to write your congressman about, but this latest demotion of education by CNN is notable in that mainstream media just do not have a place for education news. Thus, mainstream news consumers will also get less education content on a daily basis making the fight to keep education news (both good and bad) prominently on the national stage that much harder.

* ABCNEWS is presently the only one to list "The Law" as a separate category.