The exploding newsroom
: The Lenslinger contemplates the future — in a week or two — when everyone in a newsroom has a camera and a pencil: Specialties merge, egos deflate.
Now, Young Broadcasting, KRONís owner, is announcing that another of their stations, WKRN of Nashville, is jumping aboard the solo train. Not only that, WKRN is doing it NOW. Having already purchased 30 Sony Z1 cameras (at a mere 3 pounds apiece) along with 16 Dell laptop editors, KRN management announced an eight week training course that will transform 13 traditional news crews into 30 video journalists….
Jill Reporter-Bunny might shoot her own stuff, but chances are Chet Graytemples wonít pack his own lens when he saunters off the set long enough for a series shoot.
If he does, then that would be a revolution, one in which the star-making nature of your local news factory might indeed crumble. Imagine a TV newsroom where even the top anchor schleps gear, thus tarnishing the artifice of suave superiority inherent in the dapper newsreader model. While thatís not likely to happen, one aspect of the changing times does excite me: the gradual transformation of local correspondents from overdressed poseurs to blue-collar news gatherers.
