By Kirstin Heinle
Student Writer
Professional television journalists from across the country and
Katie Couric (pictured with Broadcast Journalism graduate student Michelle Phalen) made the trip to Los Angeles, taking time from her position as anchor and managing editor for the CBS Evening News to accept her award for “Special Achievement for National Impact on the 2008 Campaign,” which she won for her interviews with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. At the podium Couric told the audience she went to great lengths to be unbiased in her interviews, focusing on every facial expression and body position.
“My goal was to be a conduit, to allow her a chance to express her issues and let the viewers decide for themselves,” she said.
ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos won its second Cronkite Award this year for its “On the Trail” series, which consisted of interviews with every presidential contender in the 2008 campaign. The judges applauded George Stephanopoulos, who attended the event, for his “compelling” and “thoroughly prepared” interviews.
Jo Wan, a reporter for KTSF-TV in San Francisco, won a special award—the “Commendation for Service to a Community”—for her Mandarin-language reports on female candidates and Asian voters in the 2008 election. Wan’s acceptance speech was a highlight of the afternoon. “Every citizen comes to America to pursue their American Dream, and this”—she held up her award proudly—“is my American Dream.”
Earlier in the day, the 10 winners sat on a panel moderated by Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center and holder of the Norman Lear Chair in Entertainment, Media and Society at USC Annenberg. Kaplan said the purpose of the Cronkite Awards is to “shine a light on the best television news programs,” expose and use them to educate the public on quality journalism.
He asked the panel why it is that only a tiny fraction of television news broadcasts seem to commit to quality.
In general, the panelists agreed with Dan O’Donnell’s—news director of WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania—hypothesis that “quality is harder to do.” They expressed the belief that even though quality costs more, audiences prefer serious, hard-hitting news to fast, flash-in-pan reporting.
“However, we shouldn’t be too high and mighty to address [less hard-hitting] issues, like the Rhianna and Chris Brown story,” said Couric. She reminded the group that audiences want a mixture of stories, but agreed they value quality over quantity.
The discussion became serious when Kaplan asked the panelists to address “not the 800-pound gorilla in the room, but the 800-megapixel gorilla in the room”— the role the Internet is playing in the future of journalism.
A consensus was quickly made. The group expressed that a new journalism business model must be established because they cannot continue losing money at the current rate. Said Couric, “[TV news] is an outdated model for the way people consume information.”
Michael Cate, a producer from KING-TV in Seattle, said he thinks journalism should be subscription-based to take pressure off advertising revenue. Couric disagreed, saying, “But Internet users don’t want to pay for content.”
Her executive producer, Rick Kaplan, reminded her that nobody thought HBO was a good idea, but eventually it caught on and become financially viable.
The conversation ended on a positive note, when Rick Kaplan reminded everyone about the importance of journalism for democracy. “I don’t think any of us went into this because we thought it was a good business model. We did it because we care about what we are doing. Democracy is at its strongest when we are great.”
Winners included KING (Seattle), WGAL (Lancaster, PA), News 8 Austin, Wisconsin Public TV, Greg Fox of WESH (Winter Park, FL), and the Hearst-Argyle Station Group. ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos and NOW on PBS took National Network Program prizes. Wan of KTSF won a Commendation for Service to a Community and Couric was honored with a Special Achievement for National Impact on the 2008 Campaign.
Check back soon for full video coverage of the event.
Photos
More about winners
Panel video
Luncheon video
More coverage
Executive in Residence David Westphal's blog
Variety
