Jon Ebinger Lecture

I attended the Jon Ebinger lecture on Tuesday - and I thought the lecture and the Q&A were very interesting! His lecture was both informative and funny.

Many teachers in this major continue to tell us that TV news is not in danger in our tech-savvy society. But Ebinger came right out at the beginning and explained why the business is in trouble. I thought some of the statistics he threw out were particularly interesting - namely, that the nightly news viewership has decreased by 50% in the last 20 years. And also that the average age of viewers is 60 years old. I know we have talked about demographics and viewership - but these are numbers I had not heard before.

One thing I took away from the lecture is an emphasis on how important it is as an aspiring journalist to show that I am capable of being involved with the new media that will reach the targeted audiences. I know we have talked many times in our 239 class about the importance of blogging and of being "with-it" as far as technology goes - but I hadn't thought of it in this light. According to what Ebinger said, it's important to keep a blog because it shows that you are capable of doing what's needed to reach the audience the employer wants to reach.

Another interesting part of the discussion was when Ebinger emphasized that "Credibility really matters!" Of course we all say we want to be honest, unbiased journalists, but in the real world I think there will be pressures and biases all around. He said it is important to be honest right up front and at the first opportunity to do so. He noted that if something is going to get out - get it out right now rather than later. Don't hide things - and encourage the people I interview to do the same.

Ebinger said of citizen journalism that it is maybe not the best advancement because that is what we're supposed to do as journalists! We are trained in the ethics and principles of journalism, and why would we want other people who are not trained to be doing our job? It's a growing trend, and I think I'm going to go look what the Knight Foundation has to say about citizen journalism, because he said they had more information. I think I want to spend time to learn about new trends of journalism so that I can be able to understand them more clearly and deal with them accordingly.

The last thing I took away from the lecture was that people are not apathetic to the news! Although the numbers say viewership/readership are declining, people are still accessing the information - wanting to know what is going on in the world around them. Ebinger said people like Jon Stewart wouldn't be nearly as popular if the audience didn't know what they were talking/joking about. I hadn't really thought of that before, but it is true that talk show hosts, comedians, etc. use material from current events all the time. People are going to be surrounded by technology no matter what happens in the future, but news will always remain important.