Harbus

Issue date: 11/19/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Charles de Segundo (OB) Helen Boaden engages with students after her talk

How can traditional news organizations compete with oceans of user-generated content and super-sophisticated search? Why pay for foreign news bureaus when consumers can simply visit local provider websites? Does the slow death of newspapers foreshadow the fate of journalism as we know it? Helen Boaden,a multi-award winning reporter and Director of BBC News, is the first woman to run the world's largest and most trusted news organization. She came to campus to share her thoughts.

Over ninety students, Nieman fellows and practicing journalists packed into an Aldrich classroom on Nov. 6, 2007 to hear Helen Boaden speak on the future of her industry, at a talk co-sponsored by the Business, Industry and Government Club and the Women's Student Association. At the end of her thoughtful and well-researched speech, she showed an 8-minute film on how the BBC would report on a 2010 terrorist attack on Waterloo station in Central London, and how such news would be consumed.

The film touched on key themes that she had raised in her speech. On the production side, one theme is the increasing prominence of content produced by eyewitnesses, not professional journalists. In the movie, a bystander who escapes without injury takes footage with her videophone and uploads it to BBC web site. She is then contacted by the presenter, who would like to conduct an interview. On the sidewalk, she pulls her laptop out of her bag, logs on (presumably over a WiMAX connection) and, using the webcam in her laptop, is interviewed by a journalist in the studio. In the weeks following, she produces a series of podcast audio blogs from her bedroom on reflections.

On the consumption side, the exploding number of choices open to news users is another theme. In the film, a businessman receives a travel alert on his handset while he waits for a cab. Eager to find out more on the news story once inside the taxi, he chooses to use the big screen interactive display in the car, and not his handset. Once on the train platform, he then watches the webcast of the eyewitness from his handheld. Back home from his trip, he chooses from the BBC's internet-inspired interactive TV platform beamed on to his wall.

In such an environment, it is easy to be pessimistic about the future of journalists and the entities that employ them. How can a professional reporter compete with eyewitnesses who carry video equipment in their pockets and purses? The importance of original content seems to be declining: in one unsettling observation, Boaden noted that while the BBC was ranked first for trustworthiness, and CNN second, Google (which produces no original content whatsoever) was the world's third most trusted news producer. And if that isn't bad enough, consider the effects of user choice: consumers will find ever more innovative ways to skip around advertising; and in many cases, particularly in times of peace and prosperity, show relatively little interest in foreign news. How then can firms continue to pay for expensive foreign news bureaus, or even for expensive investigative journalism at home? The BBC, for example, is the only foreign news producer with a permanent presence in Kabul, Afghanistan. And if such firms do cut back in these areas, what will be the ultimate effect be on liberal democracies? Responsible citizenship, Boaden reminded the audience, is like responsible consumption: it depends on being well informed.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

FRONT PAGE