The world of journalism is inevitably changing Lester Holt of NBC’s “Today” and “Nightly News” weekend editions said Tuesday at the final event in this year’s Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
A major source of this transformation the anchor and reporter said is the proliferation of online news sources and blogs.
“The good news is we have more options than we’ve ever had before he said. The bad news is we have more options than we’ve ever had before.”
The veteran journalist who joined MSNBC in 2000 after two decades at smaller stations said NBC and other major TV news networks must struggle to keep up with the pace of the Internet.
“You’re tougher competition than the guys at ABC or CBS he said, referring to the Internet-savvy public, because you don’t have copy editors or fact checkers.”
He said this unfiltered citizen journalism can sometimes be full of dangerous misinformation such as the rumor of Steve Jobs’ death that cost Apple stock 3 percent in October of 2008. The false death report originated on CNN’s iReport which says that stories in the user-submitted section are unverified although Holt avoided naming CNN.
Other times he said citizen journalism can be a powerful force for good such as the user-generated videos of protests and violence in Iran during the summer of 2009. Those images had the potential to change a society Holt said.
“None of this absolves us of our responsibility to make sure information is credible he cautioned. Was it yesterday or five days ago? Was it provoked?”
In the case of Iran many of these questions could not be answered at the time and so NBC aired some of the videos alongside warnings that their context was unknown.
Despite these reservations Holt said he was optimistic about the future of journalism.
“On many measures we’ve never been better than what we are today he said. This is not one of those lectures mourning the good old days.”
Senior Melissa Giaimo who attended the lecture and a dinner with Holt and about 20 professors administrators and others said Holt’s remarks brought clarity to a subject she has been studying intensely.
“For me as someone who has studied journalism and worked in journalism on campus and in an internship— and who wants to pursue journalism— he brought together a lot of the pieces Giaimo said.
Those pieces include the disappearance of ad dollars as audiences turn toward free information, and the splintering of society into sectors that identify their politics by what information they consume. But Giaimo said she walked away more hopeful than fearful that a new pay model will protect quality reporting.
Journalism is never going to go away Giaimo said. The need for people to disseminate facts to choose which facts are important to analyze them— is a crucial role of democracy. It’s just the medium that’s changing.”
Journalism major Kate Schwartz a senior who is looking for a journalism job said she appreciated that even in the face of troubling signs for the industry Holt remained confident.
“You don’t hear that a lot even from professors here she said. His personal testimony was so valuable… He’s been at the bottom he’s at the top now and now he has a son who’s starting out like we are.”
Before arriving at MSNBC Holt spent 14 years at WBBM-TV in Chicago where he honed his broadcast skills both behind the desk and in the field. His son Stefan Holt earned a job as a reporter at an ABC affiliate after graduating from Pepperdine in 2009.
Holt’s speech took only 30 minutes of the 90-minute event with the rest devoted to questions and answers.
“I don’t recall there’s been a Dean’s Lecture where there’s a lot of questions like that Dr. Michael Murrie, who introduced Holt, said. I think the people who were there were generally very enthusiastic.”
Murrie who has seen Holt speak several times said that previous lectures covered the same main topics but questions brought out new information such as the influence of Holt’s Christian faith.
Living out his faith is not a problem Holt said but identifying himself by it can be.
“The difficult thing is talking about my faith he said. It becomes more of a political thing where people make assumptions based on it… I find myself almost afraid to talk about my faith and that’s not a position I should be in.”
Murrie said students he talked to enjoyed the discussion while others said they wish they could have attended.
The event which took place during the opening performance of Songfest attracted fewer than 75 people.
“I wish more people could have seen it Schwartz said, but it seemed like the people there were really engaged in the conversation.”