Thursday, March 31, 2005

Catching up with online news after spring break Here are a few stories that might be of interest in journalism classes over the next couple of weeks. Ted Koppel to Leave 'Nightline' and ABC News. Ted Koppel, who has hosted "Nightline" for a quarter century, will leave the network when his contract expires in December. By Jacques Steinberg. [NewYorkTimes] Dan Gillmor recommends a report titled Abandoning the News, about news-consumption habits, especially those of young people. Here's how it starts: There's a dramatic revolution taking place in the news business today and it isn't about TV anchor changes, scandals at storied newspapers or embedded reporters. The future course of the news, including the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society are being altered by technology-savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways. 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 report is was done for the Carnegie Foundation by Merrill Brown, who has been founding editor in chief of MSNBC.com, a senior vice president of RealNetworks, a founder of Court TV and a Wall Street correspondent for The Washington Post. Finally, here's a Tennessee paper being cited by Extra Extra! for investigative reporting on a story headed, County jails outdated, fail to meet standards. Leon Alligood of The Tennessean reviewed state data to report on overcrowding in county jails. He found that "a total of 26 of the 129 jails statewide have been 'decertified'," because of varying reasons, including unhealthy living conditions. 8:02:27 PM    comment [] WUOT-FM Story Wins Regional Award My class will talk about broadcast news writing in a little while, so its timely to hear that the University of Tennessee's WUOT-FM has received a 2005 regional Edward R. Murrow Award for a feature story broadcast last November. WUOT was the only radio station in Tennessee to take a regional award in the annual Radio-Television News Directors Association Murrow Award competition, up against other broadcasters in Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Kentucky. (WUOT fell in the "small-market" category, along with award-winning stations in Lexington, Ky., and Charleston, W.Va.) Produced by WUOT News Director Matt Shafer Powell, the winning story is a long-form feature about "Prom of the Stars," an annual event for developmentally disabled people in East Tennessee. More information, including station comments and streaming audio of the story, is available at WUOT.org, which mentions that the station just added regional news to its National Public Radio programming in 2002. (Other features are in the station's online archive.) Other Knoxville-area Murrow awards went to local television stations. WATE took an investigative reporting award for a story titled "Playing the Ponies," while WBIR took two awards, one for its 10 News Tonight coverage of Hurricane Ivan, and one for overall excellence. Other  regional award winners in Tennessee were two Nashville television stations, WTVF and WKRN, and WTVC in Chattanooga. Winners of the regional awards become candidates for national awards made at the RTNDA convention in June. 7:29:20 PM    comment []

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