Win a Fellowship To Change TV News

CBS News 2011                                  CBS News 1962

OK.

It’s 1962 and you’ve tuned into The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

There’s Walter Cronkite (the anchor for those of you too young to remember), sitting at a desk with a box over his shoulder.

Music up

Camera dolly in

Walter looks into camera

Reads TelepromTer and says “Good evening”.

Fast forward a mind boggling 50 years (ok, 49).

You’ve tuned into The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric

The soon to be departing Katie Couric

There’s Katie Couric, sitting at a desk with a box over her shoulder.

Music up

Dolly in

Katie looks into the camera

Reads TelepromTer and says “Good Evening”.

Sound familiar?

It should.

Swap out Katie and Walter and what have you got?

1962 televison produced in 2011.

Hard to believe.

But true.

If the computer industry had progressed with the same courage and creativity and steely determination of the TV network news operations, we’d all be carrying around IBM mainframes in our pockets.

no.. wait…

You see the problem.

Now, fortunately, and remarkably, someone actually wants to address this issue.

Fortunately because ratings at network news operations are falling as fast as the againg viewership can die off

and amazingly, because the source of this attempt to modernize TV storytelling is perhaps the most calcarous of the lot – PBS.

Medialab, an offshoot of PBS, and funded by The Knight Foundation, is offering you an opportunity to win a newsroom fellowship and change the way video news is presented.  This includes both broadcast and online.

Here it is, straight from the PBS website:

This is something we hope to change with the first Knight Mozilla news innovation challenge topic. We’re inviting hacks and hackers from around the world to answer the question: How can new web video tools transform news storytelling? People with the best ideas will get to bring them to life with a full-year paid fellowship in a world-leading newsroom.

Personally, I think this is a super-cool opportunity.

Take a crack at it.

And post your entry here as well.

There’s tons of potential here. Nothing in this world has changed in 50+ years and it’s more than time for something new.

Or as Walter used to say: and that’s the way it is

(That was how he closed out his broadcasts….)

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 35 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.