Barbara Cochran

Yes, says Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future, because demand for data services is soaring. No, says Barbara Cochran of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, because it will hurt TV stations.

Remember all those predications in the wake of the disasters that TV news would finally get serious — that more sober local newscasts would turn their attention to public affairs and that the networks would increase their coverage of happenings in other parts of the world? It might have happened at first, but it didn’t last. Time and the economy has taken its toll and much TV news has gotten thinner and more parochial, while enterprise reporting has diminished. But there may be a positive change: stations are better prepared to cover events of 9/11’s magnitude. Let’s hope they don’t need to.

Barbara Cochran, in a new paper, says that increasing local staff to include a more diversified and digital-savvy workforce is one key to improving public media’s draw, along with taking advantage of digital opportunities.