TV broadcast veteran says quantity is replacing quality in newsrooms
The demand in today's newsrooms for more quantity -- live shots for multiple newscasts each day, copy for station websites and tweeted updates -- has shifted emphasis in TV newsrooms from quality to quantity D.C. bureau chief for ABC7 and WJLA 24/7 Sam Ford told members of the National Press Club Broadcast/Podcast team on May 5. He spoke by Zoom from his car while on assignment in Southeast Washington.
Noting the absence of time to polish a script, he said simply, "I don't have time." Increasingly, harassment by bystanders shouting "fake news" during TV live shots means more time wasted re-locating a crew to a location less likely to cause disruption to a live report, he said.
Ford said he misses the collaboration in the newsroom that is limited by COVID-19 restrictions on being in the office. He said that early in his career he had opportunities to rub shoulders with and pick up tips from more senior reporters. "I learned from my elders face-to-face."
On the other hand, his daughter had more opportunities in journalism classes to get hands-on training because of digital technology, unavailable when he was in at the University of Kansas William Allen White Journalism School.
"Film was expensive," he said recalling when he got only one spool of film for a classroom exercise. Now, the amount of digital space for recording an event or practicing a report is pretty much limitless. Today's "young people have a lot more opportunities for reporting."
Ford, who marked 35 years in the Washington market recently, pointed to a continuing series of reports he did over that span following two young men from the neighborhood around New York Ave. and Bladensburg Rd., one with adult involvement in his life and one who had little of such guidance. Both eventually ended up in prison, but both have become successful businessmen.
He did features on the two when they were 10, 14, 17 and 21. "Last year I decided to talk to them again." They are 40. One runs a barber shop in Waldorf and the other owns a janitorial business near Cambridge. That sort of long-term reporting is the benefit of being at one employer for so long, he said.
The Broadcast/Podcast Team meets monthly, usually at noon on the first Thursday. All NPC members are welcome to join the discussions or join the team. Contact Team Leader Mark Hamrick at [email protected].