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October 11, 1997
STUDENTS SPEAK OUT Strolling along a cool green campus boulevard... ...a student from the journalism class I've just visited catches up to ask a question. "I'd like to work my way around the world like you did," she says, "but is there a future for me in foreign news ?" It's the question I'm asked more than any other as I tour some of the top universities and colleges across the United States. The answer doesn't come easily, since the scarcity of genuine international news reporting on U.S. network television suggests an emphatic "no". But any seasoned journalist, business executive or diplomat will tell you that the world has never been a more complex, intriguing and exciting field of dreams and endeavor than it is right now. So my answer has to be the same one that was given to me by the older, road-weary reporters I button-holed as a student back in the 70's: "yes, there is a future -- as long as you help create it." In fact the crucial ingredient in any attempt to revive the discipline of American foreign-corresponding is the hopeful, idealistic yearning on the part of many young aspiring reporters to break in to the international news market. Too many journalists of my generation have simply given up the battle to encourage management to continue covering the world. So it's going to take new blood flowing into the shrunken outer arteries of the American news industry to re-establish the nation's reputation as a leader in world news reportage and analysis. I have no doubt that the students I've met at places like Boston University, Harvard, Northwestern, Columbia, the University of Iowa and UCLA have the potential to accomplish this. The question is: will those of us who've made a good living in broadcast news leave behind us an industry of opportunity, or one crippled by budget-slashing, ratings-driven industrialists ? Young aspiring journalists are aware of the obstacle-course of corporate dysfunction that lies in wait for them. Generally, the questions they most frequently ask indicate a healthy mix of ambition and youthful idealism. But there's a good deal of suspicion and anxiety, too: Where should I look for my first job ? Taken as a whole, these questions are further evidence of a continuing decline in credibility among many of America's leading news organizations. Corporate politics and business expediencies now appear to pose career risks as significant in the minds of many young journalists as the physical hardships they expect to encounter on hazardous overseas assignments. Is that a change from when my contemporaries and I were students or entry-level reporters ? You bet it is. We knew the news business was rough, but good reporting usually enabled you to keep a safe distance from meddling incompetents and power-trippers, the scourge of all newsrooms. And if things went sour, you could always move to another station, network or newspaper. But now graduates and beginners have much less latitude in today's tighter job market. That means answering their questions is vital to helping negotiate a way forward -- not just for them, but for we older hands, too. If those of us who enjoy prominent positions don't do more to heal the industry's wounded credibility, we'll have much less help to rely upon from the young bloods -- and brains -- who could contribute so much towards putting genuine news reporting back on the daily agenda. |
| Next time... | we'll discuss some possible answers -- and solutions.
See you then... |