In the spirit of BuzzFeed, here are 14 not-really-so-amazing things you need to know about the next generation of television journalists, based on my recent visit to Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
JESSELL AT LARGE
All U Need 2 Know About Next-Gen Reporters
Last week, prior to the NAB Small Market Television Exchange, I attended a meeting of the Independent Television Group where I joined the small-market broadcasters in a tour of Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications.After the tour, I led a discussion featuring several broadcast journalism students and a couple of faculty members with the aim of getting at their usage of, and attitudes toward, media. Members of the ITG, many of whom also own newspapers, are rightly concerned that young people have drifted away from legacy media and will never return.
I asked each of the students about their daily media habits and one of the surprises was how popular BuzzFeed is. BuzzFeed, if you don’t know, is a website that aggregates the news along with heavy, heavy doses of pop culture. One of its tricks is to break down topics into lists with pictures or videos — funny, snarky, sweet or simply interesting. If you are not careful, you can get lost on the site. So in the spirit of BuzzFeed, here are:
14 Not-Really-So-Amazing Things You Need To Know About the Next Generation of TV Journalists Based Solely On My Visit To ASU.
1. If you can’t say it in 140 characters, don’t bother. Twitter rules.
2. If you want to get their attention, e-mail is probably not a good idea.
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3. The great irony: They are preparing to work in TV news, even though they have no personal interest in watching TV news.
4. They will work with you in reinventing TV news and making it more appealing to the young, if you give them half a chance.
5. They believe that a little irreverence and opinion in the news might not be such a bad thing. Think BuzzFeed and The Daily Show instead of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
6. At ASU at least, they are trained in studios and newsrooms that are probably better equipped than the small-market stations where they will be starting their careers.
7. They are willing to work for the meager starting pay that stations should be embarrassed to offer.
8. They are willing to go anywhere for an on-air job, with the possible exception of Glendive, Mont.
9. They are the complete package. As multimedia journalists, they can report, shoot and edit all by themselves. Or, so they say.
10. Too many are interested in sports reporting, especially given how it has been de-emphasized at many stations.
11. They read the papers, but more as a chore (or a classroom requirement) than a pleasure. (At ASU, they get them for free.)
12. Radio is fading fast.
13. When they set up their own households, they won’t be subscribing to cable.
14. They are bright, passionate and ambitious.
Harry A. Jessell is editor of TVNewsCheck. He can be contacted at 973-701-1067 or [email protected]. You can read earlier columns here.
Comments (9)
Greg Doggett says:
October 4, 2013 at 3:35 pm
They’re getting into this business for the wrong reasons.
Linda Stewart says:
October 5, 2013 at 4:15 am
My impression is that they are getting into the business because they are passionate about journalism. Why do you think?
Ellen Samrock says:
October 6, 2013 at 6:46 pm
Living in a small market, I’ve seen the news packages of some of these newbie one-man-band reporters. Our local NBC affiliate hired two of them. Blown out and/or out of focus video, nat sound as loud as their VO, not enough coverage and/or uninteresting b-roll, inane or cliche questions. If I were the news director I would be embarrassed to run them. The worst is that they come out of universities convinced their geniuses who’ve got the whole process nailed. I suppose what they’re doing is OK for web journalism or a blog (and this may be the future of video journalism anyway). But it isn’t up to the broadcast standards I was trained in.
Jaclyn Hansen says:
October 4, 2013 at 3:52 pm
That was great.
Bill Greep says:
October 4, 2013 at 4:54 pm
They need not hire an agent… save the 10% per pay and hire a one-time-only attorney !
(Kills me to see these kids fork over money just to be able to refer to their “agent” when job seeking.)
Wagner Pereira says:
October 4, 2013 at 8:54 pm
The same week that Business Insider came out with “The 10 Most Useless Graduate Degrees” – Mass Media is #6. http://read.bi/1a38TMn
Greg Doggett says:
October 7, 2013 at 10:15 am
Insightful and relevant.
steve weiser says:
October 8, 2013 at 1:32 pm
Of those 14, #5 worries me the most. As a former TV news person and now a professor of broadcasting, it bothers me that the term “journalism” has changed so dramatically, and that Jon Stewart, Rush Limbaugh, Ed Schultz, and Sean Hannity are all considered “news” people when they are not. What bothers me more is that some newer faculty (and younger) also accept the premise and even teach “advocacy journalism” which to me is a complete contradiction in terms. But then, I grew up with Huntley-Brinkley and Walter Cronkite.
matthew reiss says:
October 9, 2013 at 10:22 am
Also former TV news person, now a professor. Agree that facilities at my school are better than many small market TV stations. Am also finding way too much interest in sports over news — girls want to be sideline reporters now, where they used to want to be entertainment reporters — and that they want to work in TV news, but don’t want to watch it. You won’t get a finished product fresh out of college. It’s realistic to expect a ramping up period when they start. But I worry that with the emphasis on one man bands, they won’t be able to learn how to improve their packages from veteran story tellers.