Brad Kalbfeld visited our online journalism class at George Mason on April 5th. Brad Kalbfeld has been a writer, reporter, editor and news executive for more than 36 years, including 22 as Managing Editor/Broadcast for The Associated Press
He gave the history of journalism and reporting and his take on the future.
Brads takes:
Back in the day: You carried heavier equipment and info got across slowly. Type writers and tel x machines
Today: info moves faster, small items go a long way. Ex- the smart phone. Today, anyone can have access to information.
In the past new reporting went through up to five filter, reporter, section editor managing editor all the way up to the consumer
Today the reporter can surpass these filters straight to the consumer. Furthermore, anyone can report stories or events to the masses faster than news reporters who deal with filters. “Joe six Pack”
-Reporters now are using less filters, or even directly communicating with the consumers. The editors begin to lose more power. This gives the reader more power. Why?- Reporters and Joe six-packs have to worry about user consumption.
You have to be interesting. Readers have more options and outlets.
The news world has changed. Reporters are now appealing to different diverse niches. So readers can decide who they want to follow.
Dirty secret: “Professional journalists are scared of citizen journalists”:
Citizen journalists can have info pro journalists can’t get.
On the other hand: citizen journalists don’t understand how “the camera can lie”
They don’t have the background to understand getting all sides of a story.
-Ethical Journalism.
In summation: Reporting in the past moved more slowly and went through filters. The cause of this was a limited variety in reporting styles and views and the appeal to a small variety or niches.
Today news travels faster, and anyone can be the reporter. This gives the readers more options, which ultimately means more reporters appeal to more niches.
Either way reporting must be ethical, or consumers must be aware enough to understand the difference between ethical and unethical news telling.