Walter Cronkite had a number of historic moments that he announced on television, but this clip is about the assassination of Martin Luther King. There are a number of contrasts between this broadcast and a more current broadcast from NBC. Watch both clips in their entirety, and comment at length about the many differences. Discuss why you think that television news has evolved the way that it has over time, and speak to the ways that you think that the news has stayed the same. This is the long post that is in lieu of our second hour of class, so I am looking for some depth to your analysis.
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Although this is a different time than now, I don't feel as if he is sincer about Dr.Martin Luther King death. He mentions negro several times which I don't agree with this term, but again the time that this was broadcasted. This was a very forward simplely informative newscast. He was monotone with little emotion,he did however mention that he greatly influenced the civilrights movement. The second video is not working so it is hard to compare them, but the second video I noticed that it's only 3 min long compared to the 1st which is 9 minutes long. The first one probably showed more documentary of King giving his speech.I imagine that the news goes faster than before because now everything is faster to accomidate our attention spand, it is hard for many people to pay attention for a length of time.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, I don't remember seeing a news broadcast from longer than maybe ten years ago and the differences between broadcast journalism then and now is really interesting. Walter Cronkite is much more matter-of-fact and stoic than Tom Brokaw is in the more recent clip. Cronkite didn't seem concerned with hiding the fact that he was reading off of his notes, unlike Brokaw who appeared to have most of what he was saying memorized, even though I'm sure he's just reading off of a teleprompter. Brokaw's approach makes him look like he's looking viewers in the eyes and really relating to them on a more personal level, rather than just reading off the facts. The older broadcast is less visually stimulating and significantly longer than the newer one, which made it a challenge to pay attention to. The Brokaw one, however, had bold colors and TV monitors visible in the background and was much more brief, which I'm sure is an attempt to get viewer's very selective attention.
ReplyDeleteThe news today seems to have a more emotional side and is more concise than the broadcasts of the past, but neither one came right out and told the viewers how to feel about what they were saying. Both journalists know viewers are smart enough to know how to feel about the announcements and don't come right out and say how they should react.
I think television has evolved the way it has because people want different things from the news today than they did in the past. Now, people want news quickly and from someone they feel like they can get to know through the TV.