This was only the beginning of the bad news. The members participating in the panel discussion that followed indicated that the media places too much emphasis on achieving high ratings and obtaining profits, ultimately compromising the truth of what needs to be understood. News is crafted to feed the ratings. Any benefit competition from hundreds of other stations might offer in jump starting quality news, has, amazingly enough, done the opposite. Journalism has turned into a homogenized news broadcast where there is a tendency for reporters to follow other reporters, with everyone too afraid to report anything that might be viewed as controversial.
Rick Kaplan, former news executive and producer contends that the problem with today's newscast is that it blurs the line between news and entertainment. Apparently in order to get people to pay attention, hard news has gone soft with featuresque coverage. It's gotten to the point where people can't tell the difference between features and news.
Another panelist, Marvin Kitman, a television columnist, contended that television producers undermine the trust and knowledge of the American people by believing that the viewer is apathetic. This has led to a decrease in standards, he claimed, where viewers aren't given news of any great import.
With all of these negative aspects articulated by renown experts, the audience began to wonder if there is hope for the future. Graduate student Andy Pergam looks at the media in an optimistic light, contending that "It's not broken to the point where it can't be fixed." Other graduate students who joined TeenSpeak's staff for lunch agreed, but are unsure of the way in which to improve this growing problem. Another graduate student, Emily expressed a desire to work for public broadcasting because, at least there she would have more leeway in presenting many views and beliefs of the public. All of the students agreed that ratings should be secondary to truth and that commercialism, while perhaps inescapable, should bravely venture into exposing truths and not just light-weight entertainment news.
Forrest Carr, a News director at KGUN 9 in Tuscon suggested a bonafide way to help the situation. His station has proposed a "Viewers Bill of Rights" where viewers can communicate with the network on issues that are raised, and they can ask questions as they see fit. A novel way for networks to demonstrate their sincerity to their viewers, KGUN's "code of honor" and accountability to their viewers seems to be working in winning over viewers.
Another suggestion to solving the media's bad news rating at this conference involved the development of a set of standards for source identification. This could help to create a new level of trust between the viewer and the network. The viewer would know that the information he/she was receiving was reliable and trustworthy. Clearly, it's the media's responsibility to give people proper information.
Relevance was another key ingredient in providing quality news. Networks seem to lose focus on the relevance of a story because they at times become tempted to show the sensational in hopes of creating better ratings/profits. Yet, Cal Skaggs, executive producer, of a PBS documentary about local news at WCNC-TV in Charlotte keeps the faith. "Good work will always find an audience," he believes. As audiences get smaller, good work will always find an outlet. Journalists need to realize that they can trust the American people if they would only give them some truth.
Grad
students from Columbia University School of Journalism
Taking WBAI off the air moves us further in the direction of an unquestioned popular culture that is clearly failing.
