Category Archives: Journalism

Merrill Brown on future of news

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Editorial by Merrill Brown on, the founding editor in chief of MSNBC.com and is a former executive with RealNetworks:

The future course of news, the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society, are being altered, perhaps irrevocably, by technologically savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways.

There’s an inescapable conclusion to be drawn from research I completed earlier this year for the Carnegie Corp. of New York about the news habits of 18- to 34-year-olds. In short, the future of the U.S. news industry is seriously threatened by the seemingly irrevocable move by young people away from traditional sources of news.

The thing that always chills my bones in pieces like this is the total absence of any mention of radio. Where are we?

Brian Williams’ blog

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NBC news anchor Brian Williams has been blogging (The Daily Nightly) for a few months and seems to be doing a pretty good job of it. He’s careful not to “traffic in gossip or observations that might breach his journalistic objectivity” and tends to focus more on the deliberations among his colleagues at NBC Nightly News.

This is just the kind of peek behind the scenes I think would be good for our news networks but I don’t see it happening anytime soon (see previous post). Most reporters do not feel they need to explain or justify their reports or stories and the last thing they want to do is interact with their readers/listeners. Is Brian Williams less of a journalist now that he’s contributing to a blog? More on this at NYTIMES.com (you might need a password).

New Convergence program at MU J-School

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Mike McKean heads up the new Convergence program at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. This fall he begins his 20th year teaching at the J-School. Once upon a time, he was a reporter for The Missourinet, one of the state news networks owned by the company I work for. Mike and I get together every few months to talk about radio and journalism and the Internet and stuff like that.

Today I took my recorder along and asked him about: Teaching journalism in 2005; podcasting; blogs; radio; advertising; newspapers; “citizen journalism” and some other stuff.

AUDIO: Interview with Mike McKean 20 min MP3

Execution journal: Donald Jones

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In his capacity as news director for The Missourinet, Bob Priddy has witnessed 15 executions. The most recent was the April 27th execution of Donald Jones, for which Bob produced an “audio journal” that begins as he leaves his motel in Bonne Terre to go to the prison and ends as he prepares to leave the prison about two and a half hours later. Bob telescoped the audio down to about half an hour and some segments have been shifted for context purposes (the reading of the final statement of Donald Jones, for example).

Bob was not allowed to take his recorder to the execution witness area, so he summarizes the events that took place in that approximately 90-minute span. The main voices you will hear are those of Missourinet News Director Bob Priddy, Corrections Department spokesman John Fougere, and Corrections Director Larry Crawford. Voices of various other officers will be heard as part of the process.