Summary: Technological advances are rapidly redefining the news industry-and raising critical ethical concerns. Is the Internet's ability to deliver instant news and to track audience behavior resulting in lower news standards? And is TV news blurring the line between hard news and infotainment? In this two-part NewsHour program, syndicated columnist Richard Reeves; former broadcaster Marvin Kalb, of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Months after his arrival, WCNC-TV news director Keith Connors feels he has assembled a winning team, but beneath the surface the newsroom family is riven by tensions. Promotions and demotions cause the reporters to question their director's motives. One reporter openly rebels after having to cover a story he felt was beneath him. Connors experiences the isolation of leadership's tough decisions...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In response to pressure from the station management for higher ratings, WCNC-TV news gets a reformatted program, a new anchor, and a new emphasis on breaking stories, especially in crime coverage. Once again, ethical conflicts arise as news director Keith Connors and his reporters try to determine how much information regarding an ongoing murder case they can air without jeopardizing the police...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The banking industry is turning Charlotte, North Carolina, into a boomtown; for WCNC-TV news, the city's growth brings its share of problems. Veteran reporter Bea Thompson became the city's first black female TV news journalist 22 years ago. Now on the verge of being fired, she touches off a protest that escalates into picketing and boycotts. News director Keith Connors and general manager Rick...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When news director Keith Connors goes home to Ashtabula, Ohio, for Christmas, he is struck by the contrast with booming Charlotte and realizes why he left to cover news in other people's communities. His former reporter, Bea Thompson, made the opposite bargain, forsaking opportunities elsewhere to serve the city in which she grew up. After Connors orchestrates his news team's coverage of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: When a wave of bomb threats hits Charlotte's schools, newly hired WCNC-TV news director Keith Connors reins in his reporters while the competition rushes to air with misinformation. Connors loses the big story but hopes he is building viewer trust. The station confronts a different ratings dilemma when several white families sue to overturn the city's landmark 1971 school busing plan. As...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The last year of the 20th century saw the impeachment trial of President Clinton, the resignation of Boris Yeltsin, and the funeral of Jordan's King Hussein. This program includes clips from those and other headline-making stories, as well as footage from military hotspots such as Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, and Iraq; interviews with scientists involved in deciphering chromosome 22 and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: After establishing the historical background of primary elections in the U.S., this fast-paced program focuses on the 2004 primary in New Hampshire to study the role of communication in the electoral process. Dr. Kathleen Kendall, author of Communication in the Presidential Primaries; The Washington Post's David Broder; and other prominent experts analyze speeches, ads, news broadcasts, and all...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Although advances in telecommunications and computer technology have changed the way news is covered and written, the role of the journalist-to gather the facts and report the news in a way that will engage a mass audience-has remained the same. In this program, staff members of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, the Rocky Mountain News, and The Denver Post talk about...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: How do you juggle journalistic ideals with bottom-line concerns? Each day both local and national TV news operations attempt to report on the day's events in a way that will maximize viewers and advertising dollars. But what is the downside of this tortured calculus? In this program, a wide assortment of news professionals and scholars cast a critical eye on the practices, content, and impact...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program looks at the impact of the visual image on news and politics in the electing of Presidents and the governing of America. While projecting a self-serving image has long been an understandable part of American politics, the 1980s produced a marriage of sophisticated news manipulation by political candidates and a willingness of the news media to dance to the candidate's tune. To what...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: When CNN debuted, a 24/7 TV news channel seemed like a radical idea. Two decades later, the spread of 24-hour news networks has validated the concept while generating intense inter-network competition for audience share and advertising revenue. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Terence Smith reports on the infighting between CNN, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel. CNN's Reese Schonfeld, the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: African-American journalist Jayson Blair has been pilloried as the personification of affirmative action out of control. Was it race that fueled his rapid promotions at The New York Times and prompted management to essentially ignore reports of his inaccurate work? In this ABC News program, correspondent Bob Jamieson chronicles the sensational rise and fall of Jayson Blair. Afterward, anchor...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How should the news media prepare for and cope with a potential bioterrorist attack? In this Fred Friendly Seminar, Professor Michael Dorf of the Columbia University School of Law and 12 panelists role-play a hypothetical scenario that begins in a city hospital where a spike in a flu-like illness causes the ER staff to confront a chilling possibility: that it is not the flu at all, but...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The footage has been shot and the clock is ticking. How does a television news reporter put together an interesting and informative story in today's hurry-up media marketplace? This program discusses the steps involved in preparing reports for the TV news: logging tapes; structuring the story; editing, including the techniques and relative benefits of linear and nonlinear editing; writing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Keeping people informed 24/7 demands a never-ending stream of news items-each one filled with material to be edited, facts to be checked, and decisions to be made as the clock steadily ticks. This ABC News program takes an unvarnished look at the Chicago Tribune, ABC's World News Tonight, and WJLA, an ABC affiliate, providing insider insights into what goes on at America's newspapers and TV...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Center for Media and Public Affairs reports that during the 1990s the homicide rate in the U.S. dropped 50 percent, yet homicide news coverage increased by an incredible 700 percent. In this program, the Center's Bob Lichter and the Threat Assessment Group's Greg McCrary join ABC News anchor John Stossel to examine some of the factors that contribute to the exaggeration of risks and dangers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Is Western media coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict hindering the peace process? This hard-hitting program says yes, arguing that news reports focusing on violence without sufficiently addressing the causes promote bias and polarize public opinion. Examples of TV news stories that could provide a more accurate reflection of what is taking place in Israel and the West Bank-and, by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: What constitutes news in the Digital Age, and who is most qualified to report it? This program takes an insightful look at the growing marginalization of the mainstream press in the face of the digital communication revolution through the eyes of journalists, bloggers, scholars, and the twentysomethings who are driving the consumption and production of news. The merits and liabilities of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009