Two interesting insights from analyzing Fox News and CNN headlines

I did a semantic analysis of CNN and Fox News headlines. 

Almost all the scores were exactly what you'd assume. 

Sentiment, clickbaityness, word usage.  But one thing surprised me. 

Their grade level. 

Fox News writes on an 8th-grade level.

CNN on a 6th-grade level. (Median in both instances)

Would've assumed the other way. 

Not that it's a super important metric. 

But the usual writing advice is “write simpler” so that people understand you better. 

And knowing Fox’s target audience, would’ve assumed they are the ones leading in that.  But nope. 

They are the ones writing more complex sentences

I think it’s the cost of being more "clickbaity and emotional."

For spreading an ideology, emotions over clarity.

But in a b2b situation, clarity over emotions. Always.

So, know your target audience, know their wishes, know your situation, don’t take blind advice, and serve your audience the way they want to be served.  

Another thing that stood out were mentions of Harris vs Trump. 

CNN basically didn’t mention Kamala Harris in their headlines. It wasn’t even in the top 20 words. 

The most recurring word was, of course, Trump. In retrospect, this could be telling...

In the case of Fox News, Kamala was the most recurring word and Trump 3rd. 

This analysis is a snapshot of data from October 27, 2024.

So, it's not a proper academic study, should’ve gathered data on a longer basis and done the analysis on all articles as well.

But still interesting imho.