Using the Vanderbilt Television Abstracts to Track Broadcast News Content: Possibilities and Pitfalls

The Vanderbilt Television News Archive supplies written abstracts for its video collection of news programs. Researchers from many disciplines use the abstracts to locate stories, track specific topics, and measure the evaluative tone of news. This study examines the validity of using abstracts as substitutes for full-text transcripts. Drawing on an analysis of the abstract writing process, we highlight potential sources of error and analyze the correspondence between transcripts and abstracts. Results of a quantitative content analysis suggest abstracts can reflect important elements of news when used at high levels of aggregation but may be unreliable as substitutes for news content.