A couple of very interesting columns have been the topic of discussion here in the newsroom over the past week or so. Both columns are interesting in that they challenge the status quo of local TV news.
A lot has been written about the topic of the changing landscape in local TV news, and I doubt I can more eloquently explain what needs to be than the authors of these two columns.
The first column appears in TV NewsDay. “The last thing local TV news needs is another critic. Too bad. Here I go,” author Harry A. Jessell says in his opening line.
There are a lot of interesting quotes from Jessell’s column. Here are my favorites:
“Local TV news has got to change if it intends to serve the next generation. Instead of top down, think peer to peer. The newscast should feel like an exchange of information.
“This is not easy to do in broadcasting, which is, after all, a one-way medium. But stations can invite viewers to participate by phone, by e-mail, by texting, whatever. Some stations have already begun to do a little of this. All should do it more.”
“Do newsrooms have to look like the bridge of a spaceship in a summer sci-fi movie? Do anchors really still have to wear suits?”
The other column of note comes from Vadim Lavrusik at Mashable:
10 Ways Journalism Schools are Teaching Social Media
With news organizations beginning to create special positions to manage the use of social media tools, such as the recently appointed social editor at The New York Times, journalism schools are starting to recognize the need to integrate social media into their curricula. That doesn’t mean having a class on Facebook or Twitter, which many college students already know inside and out, but instead means that professors are delving into how these tools can be applied to enrich the craft of reporting and producing the news and ultimately telling the story in the best possible way.
Lavrusik writes about promoting content, conducting interviews, newsgathering and building a community, among other things, using social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook. The are some great lessons here for the “old dogs” of local TV news.
As I read through these articles I began to think about what a local newscast should look like.
What if news anchors and reporters talked and dressed like normal people? To borrow a thought from Jessell, “let them wear what they wear and maybe they will be able to relate better to an audience.” Maybe that will help the on air folks be more conversational.
Newscasts should become more dynamic, and involve a conversation with the audience, not cross-talk between anchors.
Newscasts should consider displaying user’s comments in real time, as stories and issues are being presented. There could be a “third anchor” focused only on moderating and presenting conversations. That anchor would never be scripted, and appear throughout the newscast.
These are only a few ideas that may help local news tackle a much larger dilemma: turning what was once a one-way presentation (TV news) into a two-way conversation.
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