Dan Schorr, 92, All A-Twitter
“I’m becoming familiar with it, even as I listen now. It really is another generation. I’m agape as I learn about how people can communicate with the outside world. It somehow reminds me ... of something in ancient Greece, the agora, the marketplace. You come out and you say things at the marketplace and everyone can hear. And every person now seems to be a network.”
—Daniel Schorr, senior correspondent, National Public Radio,
tries out new technology. See&Hear NPR story.
tries out new technology. See&Hear NPR story.
Editorial Comment: New tricks, old dogs.
News Note: Debate over journalism@USU.
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Hi Ted,
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about the proposed name change for the journalism department. I've seen it happen before, where journalism gets gobbled up by "communication" and it's downhill from there. But you've got such a strong program at Utah State that maybe you can withstand the chipping away at resources. People see Journalism as a small piece of communication programs, but I see journalism as a huge piece of democracy and it is so incredibly frustrating when other people don't see it that way. Maybe your journalism program should seek to align itself with a political science or public policy program.
On Mar 3, 2009, at 9:18 AM, joseph wrote:
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried facebook or twitter or placed anything on U-Tube, and I imagine that it will stay that way for some time.
I frankly am amazed that an old pro like Schorr would welcome still more clutter and chatter to a world already awash in 24-7 cable news, e-mails, blogs and cell-phone conversations from anywhere and everywhere.
An old friend with CBS News told me a while back that while he admires a lot of what CNN does, he was troubled (as one who worries about the standards in our profession) at the requirement that they file updates almost constantly. Covering a major conference, he had been able to listen to the speakers, reflect on what they said and file for CBS during coffee-and-restroom breaks and lunch and after they quit for the day; by contrast, his CNN counterpart was constantly scribbling a few notes on what Speaker A said, then mentally composing his update while running outside to do a stand-upper for the hourly CNN News.-- missing much of what Speaker B said send/or the question period which often produced the best copy of the day.
With newspapers falling by the wayside and other papers and TV networks cutting staff, there obviously is a gap that needs to be filled -- but it should be filled by people who have to be accountable for what they write and broadcast.
We don't need a world of Ann Coulters, MoveOn.orgs and Wikipedia-like purveyors of opinion-based stuff rather than fact-based content either because they have a particular agenda or because they don't know enough about the subject. We're facing huge challenges in such areas as energy, healthcare, finance and foreign affairs, but most of the stuff that's flying around the Internet and getting into print and on the air is shallow at best and woefully misleading at worst. When Pelosi says that we have to switch "from fossil fuels to natural gas" -- and none of the newsfolk picks up on the fact that natural gas is itself a fossil fuel, we need more professionals held to higher standards, not fewer.
Good luck in your fight with the academic bureaucracy.
Joseph
I don't blame you a bit, Joseph.
ReplyDeleteI've picked up both Facebook and Twitter just to see what they offer. Twitter can be useful as a headline news service--when the plane went into the Hudson, Twitter was 18 minutes ahead of the Time (although first/fastest w/o detail is of only limited value except as the boy who cries wolf!). Facebook really is a social network, at least as I understand the term. I am linked with friends and a lot of current and former students--most of whose posts concern bopredom, movies, lovelife and children, and are of no interest whatsoever. On the other hand, Facebook has sometime helped me learn, shape and participate in the news, and it does connect me with some people I wouldn't connect with otherwise. So that's useful.
I remember when I was on the AP bcast desk and had to top stories every 15 minutes. Got me in trouble with the U.S. AG in 1981, after I'd culled the story so many times for a new lead that my last one pissed him off, and got me chewed out by by bureau chief and NY. So constant updates to feed the 24/7 maw can be not only boring but dangerous--on many levels.
But technology doesn't help with reporter knowledge and critical thinking. Dan Schorr would know BS when he sees it, whether on Twitter or on the street. Only one way to get that kind of expertise, and faster doesn't equal better when the "news" and "commentary" is ill-informed.
Sign me, Old Phart
Thanks to Hope in WA for her kind comments on the prospects for our beloved professionally oriented journalism program here at Utah State, and the dangers of being "Borged" into a communicology mass.
ReplyDeleteThis is my argument: That while journalism clearly is a form of communication, its social role exceeds mere communication.
Anon comment about the Jschool at Utah State:
ReplyDeleteThe last department you want to be associated with is speech. Demand phys ed.
I just read the piece on your pending merger, and wept.
ReplyDeleteSpooky deja vu, Ted. In the early '80's our Department of Communication merged with the Speech and Hearing Disorders Department
to form a School of Communication. It was the beginning of the end for traditional, conventional journalism. We had close to a thousand majors. They had maybe a hundred, with a sad master's program that produced a half-dozen unemployable persons every few years. Speech Comm. had some able and witty profs who saw their traditional rhetoric and debate base disappearing, and sought new homes. They moved into public relations and transformed it into small group and specialized communications--disaster communicaton, etc. -- No more journmalism or broadcast profs were hired, only researchers with exotic ideas.
When I left I was replaced by (I think) a specialist in small group communications. I asked once who would teach the reporting and editing
classes but, being a dinosaur, was not given the courtesy of an answer.
You have fought the good fight, Ted, and I'm not usually this gloomy. But things look dire, pal, dire indeed.
Campbell