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Categories: State of the News
In the November 19th issue of Time, James Poniewozik writes that news oganizations should loose their outdated definition of “objectivity” (which is more like neutrality), and hone to a more (excuse the expression) liberal definition of the term, one where journalists are “up-front about their predilections and prejudices.”
Would this work? Just look at Fox News and MSNBC and let me know.
Categories: Net-Working
State of the News
Jon Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting, wrote an interesting article in the Jobs section of Sunday’s New York Times. Picoult predicts that there is an impending “storm” of turnover of employees in downsized companies who were left “holding the bag” – shouldering the burden of short-staffing.
Picoult goes on to say: “People are not equipment… Companies that recognize this fact will … become more communicative, more appreciative, more connected and more civil. In a word, they become more human.”
There are many different management philosophies. There is the military model and the “warm and fuzzy” model, for example. I work better, faster, harder under the “warm and fuzzy.” How about you?
Categories: State of the News
Quite a little debate going on between Jeff Jarvis, Marc Reeves and Roy Greenslade on whether there should be a wall between editorial and sales. In college and in the real world where I worked, I had always thought that there should be a wall. Jarvis says that the old model is broken and we need to go back to the older model; like that of a small town newspaper, where the owner both sells the ads and writes the articles.
Click on the three names above. Read their posts and comment on their stands.
Categories: State of the News
Broadcasting & Cable interviewed Richard Engel and Nic Robertson on bringing back the news from a war zone in their 9/20 issue.
Robertson, who joined CNN as an engineer in 1990, has seen the size of portable uplinks go from several hundred pounds down to the size of two briefcases. Engel, whose first overseas assignment was as a print reporter in Cairo in 1996, comments on how the now ubiquitous cell phone has improved access to sources, pictures and even video.
Categories: State of the News
Longtime NBC newsman Edwin Newman died on September 13th at the age of 91.
Obit (with video) on MSNBC.com.
New York Times Obit.
(Thanks to LB’s Rambles.)
Categories: State of the News
All week I’ve been watching from the sidelines the fallout from the resignation of ABC News David Westin. I’ll have some choice commentary of my own in a few days as I continue to touch base with my friends who were or still are employed there.
In the meantime, below are some links worth reading (in no particular order):
Can Anything Save ABC News from Extinction?
‘Extinction?’ Prediction ‘Belongs at the Bottom of the Birdcage’
Categories: State of the News
TV Engineering
I very seldom watch the 10 PM news on the Fox New York O&O (WYNY – aka “Fox 5 NY”), but tonight my wife and I were watching “Glee” and I hung around for the newscast. At the end of one of the live field reports on Hurricane Earl (at the Jersey shore, in the dark, in front of a snow fence), up comes the two-box and away goes the field reporter audio (cutting off the sig-out and eliminating any chance of 2-way banter.) I guess that’s what happens when you use an automated system instead of an audio person…
(I’m not even going to comment on how instead of doing a live shot where you can’t see anything – the truck operator would have been better used as an audio board operator in the studio. It’s the news, stupid and the reporter HAS to be LIVE on the scene even though there is NOTHING TO SEE.)
Categories: State of the News
ABC News has further reduced its London bureau staffing to a single 9 hour shift on weekdays. This comes just days after ABC News President David Westin announced reporting changes at the organization’s NY headquarters.
The staff at World News Now said goodbye, but you will have had to go to Google’s cached version of the show’s Facebook page to tell, as the post was deleted later in the day.
Sad times at the house that Roone built.
Categories: State of the News
I’m glad that Steve Rosenbaum noticed (and the Huffington Post picked-up on) the growing use of Skype at ABC News that Andrew Tyndall and I first blogged about in early February.
Rosenbaum correctly notes that the increasing use of Skype is not to get the story on the air faster, but to save money – lots of money.
You can read my original blog post here.
Categories: State of the News
You would think that having worked in the news business that I would have known sooner about this ten show series produced by the Newseum and currently running on some PBS stations. Unfortunately I just discovered it a few days ago.
You can find the show synopsis here and the Future of News blog here.
(Shown: John King of CNN and Steve Grove of YouTube from Episode 10.)
Categories: State of the News
Is Skype as good as shoe-leather on the ground? Andrew Tyndall, in his Tyndall Report blog raised an interesting point in his commentary on Diane Sawyer’s Journalistic Ethos.
Tyndall comments on ABC’s recent reliance on the high-tech but dirt cheap alternative to utilizing stringers or sending producers in the field to report a story. Tyndall says: “The visuals viewers see consist of reporters working the telephone; interviewing sources via speakerphone and Skype; quoting from e-mails and chatrooms and social networking sites; performing Google searches and showing Website screen grabs.”
There’s nothing wrong with using social media to help report the news, but there is still nothing better than an on the scene presence at a breaking news story. And it becomes almost laughable when a network does a Skype interview with someone who is just a ten dollar cab ride away from their headquarters. Yes, times are tough for the networks, but penny wise and pound foolish will come back to bite them again. (Just remember the Atlanta park bombing and Space Shuttle Columbia stories.)
Categories: State of the News
Mallary Jean Tenore blogs in Poynter Online on how The Austin American-Statesman, The Huffington Post and The New York Times are experimenting with ways to generate ad dollars using Twitter and Facebook.