science

Tabloid Baby

Tabloid Baby is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tabloid Baby rather than just read about it. In short: Tabloid Baby is a 1999 memoir and exposé by veteran journalist and television news producer Burt Kearns detailing his years as producer of the leading tabloid television shows of the 1990s: A Current Affair and Hard Copy. Published shortly before broadcast news was displaced by cable, the book is notable for its argument that “tabloid television” was co-opted by network news shows such as CBS’s 48 Hours which premie…

Key takeaways

Tabloid Baby belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tabloid Baby to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tabloid Baby from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tabloid Baby is a 1999 memoir and exposé by veteran journalist and television news producer Burt Kearns detailing his years as producer of the leading tabloid television shows of the 1990s: A Current Affair and Hard Copy. Published shortly before broadcast news was displaced by cable, the book is notable for its argument that “tabloid television” was co-opted by network news shows such as CBS’s 48 Hours which premiered in 1988 and NBC's Dateline which premiered in 1992, as well as demonstrating the emerging audience psychology that would lead to the explosion of reality shows in the 2000s and the openly subjective reporting that would find its apotheosis in Fox News and MSNBC on cable. Tabloid Baby was described by former A Current Affair host Maury Povich as "The Bible" (as in "Burt was there for the birthing of tabloid, he became the heart of the genre, and now he’s written the Bible") and by veteran CBS newsman and 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace as "sad, funny, undeniably authentic"... telling "the tale of what befell too much of mainstream television news over the past couple of decades as the bad drove out the good." In recent years, the term "tabloid baby" has been used to describe the current crop of television news producers, reporters and executives who were trained, or got their starts in, the tabloid television system.

References

External links Salon.com article on Tabloid Baby L.A. Weekly article on Tabloid Baby Tabloid Baby booksite New York Times New York Times article Salon.com L.A. Weekly Fairfield University magazine Interview from On The Edge with Paula Zahn Production Culture: Industrial Reflexivity and Critical Practice in Film and Television by John Thornton Caldwell Mike Wallace: A Life by Peter Sussman

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tabloid Baby

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tabloid Baby claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tabloid Baby before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tabloid Baby ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tabloid Baby

In research: Tabloid Baby appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tabloid Baby in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tabloid Baby is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1999 non-fiction books, Books about television, Mass media book stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tabloid Baby outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tabloid Baby in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tabloid Baby means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tabloid Baby out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tabloid Baby in simple terms?

Why does Tabloid Baby matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tabloid Baby?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tabloid Baby.