The field of Broadcast Journalism has evolved so quickly that journalists aren’t even sure what the field is called anymore. Is it electronic journalism? Multimedia journalism? New media Journalism?
Apart from the technological changes in the way news stories are captured and digitally relayed, the people working in the industry have faced drastic changes in the past five years.
Here’s what Mark Effron, chief operating officer of TitanTV and former executive with MSNBC and Post-Newsweek stations, says in his article Broadcast Journalism Not Dead, Just Changing.
“The evidence is everywhere. Broadcast journalism is on the ropes. A once-proud profession finds itself reeling from economic, social and technological changes. Television stations around the country are retrenching, firing reporters, anchors and producers, cutting back on enterprise reporting.
I watched a newscast recently from a market in which I once worked and saw an endless parade of shootings, accidents and fires. I was left with the impression that the fabric of this city was being torn apart, although the truth is that crime is actually down—this lack of perspective from a station that once prided itself on having a business reporter, a consumer reporter, an investigative unit and general-assignment reporters who actually developed sources to get stories.
At the recent NAB and RTNDA conventions in Las Vegas, I was struck by the number of people who thrust business cards at me with their name on top and a second line that read “consultant” rather than the call letters of a station or the name of a network.
Some actually are consulting, but others had that shell-shocked look that told a sadder story: They are out of work after a career in broadcast journalism. They were eager to hear how I had crossed the digital divide, as if somehow there was a secret code that eluded them.”
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