TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology - Tapa dura

"As news networks proliferate and an array of newcomers move onto the stage of evening television news, Kimberly Meltzer offers a timely and thoughtful assessment of the rise of the anchor, from Edward R. Murrow to Katie Couric. Meltzer examines the anomalous nature of these figures, who remain the most visible symbols of American journalism even as their celebrity status and often emotional personas contradict the ideals of that profession. Meltzer then relays industry insiders' own views of the field, as they search for a new kind of relevance in the landscape of 21st-century journalism." (Carolyn Kitch, Professor of Journalism; Director, Doctoral Program in Mass Media & Communication, Temple University; author of `Pages from the Past: History and Memory in American Magazines') "Kimberly Meltzer offers a thorough and dispassionate explanation of how television journalism has emerged over the past fifty years as a formation that challenges, accepts, alters, and disdains newspaper conventions. In her capable hands, our obsession with television anchors - that is, the controversy and contention over anchors' displays of emotion, appearance, and personality - finally begins to make sense. Without sugarcoating the downsides but also acknowledging the technological inevitability of television's adaption of journalistic rules, she traces the emergence of the anchor's `signature'. Drawing on her own experience as well as rich interview material, Meltzer explains just why we are so interested in Katie, Dan, and Tom - and quite literally, their bodies - and why this is likely to continue." (Linda Steiner, Professor and Director of Research and Doctoral Studies, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park) "As news networks proliferate and an array of newcomers move onto the stage of evening television news, Kimberly Meltzer offers a timely and thoughtful assessment of the rise of the anchor, from Edward R. Murrow to Katie Couric. Meltzer examines the anomalous nature of these figures, who remain the most visible symbols of American journalism even as their celebrity status and often emotional personas contradict the ideals of that profession. Meltzer then relays industry insiders' own views of the field, as they search for a new kind of relevance in the landscape of 21st-century journalism." (Carolyn Kitch, Professor of Journalism; Director, Doctoral Program in Mass Media & Communication, Temple University; author of `Pages from the Past: History and Memory in American Magazines') "Kimberly Meltzer offers a thorough and dispassionate explanation of how television journalism has emerged over the past fifty years as a formation that challenges, accepts, alters, and disdains newspaper conventions. In her capable hands, our obsession with television anchors - that is, the controversy and contention over anchors' displays of emotion, appearance, and personality - finally begins to make sense. Without sugarcoating the downsides but also acknowledging the technological inevitability of television's adaption of journalistic rules, she traces the emergence of the anchor's `signature'. Drawing on her own experience as well as rich interview material, Meltzer explains just why we are so interested in Katie, Dan, and Tom - and quite literally, their bodies - and why this is likely to continue." (Linda Steiner, Professor and Director of Research and Doctoral Studies, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park)

Through the lens of TV news anchors, this book examines the impact that television news has had on traditional journalistic standards and practices. While TV news anchors boost the power, adulation, and authority of journalism in general, internally, the journalistic community feels that anchors undermine many key journalistic values. This book provides a historical overview of the impact they have had on American journalism, uncovering the changing values, codes of behavior, and boundaries of the journalistic community. In doing so, it reveals that challenges to journalistic standards provide an opportunity to engage in debate that is central to maintaining journalism's identity, and demonstrate the ability of the community to self-regulate. The result is that news anchors are kept in check by the community, and the community is prompted to reexamine itself and evolve. The book's findings also offer suggestions for thinking about how journalists are dealing with the latest technological challenges posed by the internet and mobile technology.