We Want Media

In his January 29th New York Times op-ed, newsroom veteran Ted Koppel, perhaps for the first time to date, identified the true enemy of America's rich journalistic tradition of democracy: big business.

"...Today’s marketplace has become so overcrowded that network news divisions are increasingly vulnerable to the dictatorship of the demographic. Now, every division of every network is expected to make a profit..."

Koppel views the regression of network media as a product of aims to achieve profits. Moreover, that golden age of network televison--some 30 to 40 years ago--has segued into a corporate scramble for the most profitable demographics.

But, just as you go to tip your hat to this ubiquitious point, Koppel his the true villain abundantly clear.

Indeed, in television news these days, the programs are beign shaped to attract, most particularly, 18-to-34 year old viewers. They, in turn, are presumed to be partly brain-dead--though not so insensible as to be undermoved by the blandishments of sponsorship.

So, the problem with network owners, who, once, would "search out issues of importance, sit out the trivial and then tell the public what they needed to know," is the millennial generation. Need more?

There are tens of millions of baby boomers in their 40's and 50's and entering their 60's who have far more spending power than their 18-34-year old counterparts. Television news may be debasing itself to the wrong demographic.

It looks like Ted Koppel adheres to the "stagnant model" of news media, which emphasises tradition over organic innovation and trend. What Koppel fails to understand (or, chooses to ignore) is the Millenial Generation's blatent and commanding infiltration into the evolution of media's current model. Thus, Koppel's business-model media argument quickly becomes a forum for bashing the youth's growing influence news content.

The answer to media is not archaic (30 to 40 years qualifies) models of journalism. While the spending power of baby boomers remains the highest of any generational demographic, the Milennial generation doesn't lag far behind. Juxtaposing the decline of quality journalism with the growing influence of the milennial influence does nothing to eliminate the problems of either corporate or demographic influence. It's regrettable that the "inclination to spend" has determined the output of network news, but Koppel's reactionary attack on younger media viewers is unfounded. In the age of MySpace and iPods, "when I was your age" politics just don't cut it anymore.