The Journal

Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Brent Holzapfel

When CBS Evening News anchor Russ Mitchell began his professional broadcasting career in 1982, things were different. For many people, the main sources for news came from newspapers and daily newscasts. It was a time where Blackberries, Cellular phones and iPods were only figments of the imagination. The Internet had yet to be introduced and USA Today was just a newborn.

Mitchell talked about these changes in media communication and shared his personal experiences and advice for aspiring journalists during a presentation in the Emerson Library Conference Room March 2.

"Anytime I'm able to speak to people, especially young people, the one thing I'd like for them to take away from it is they look at me and say: 'Wow, if that guy can make it, so can I,'" Mitchell said.

Mitchell's talk was part of Webster's School of Business and Technology's Success to Significance Speaker Series. The presentation was a homecoming for Mitchell. Before becoming an anchor for CBS's "Saturday Early Show," Mitchell was born and raised in St. Louis and graduated from Webster Groves High School.

One of the main focuses of the evening's speech was globalization and the how media has changed over the years. Mitchell said many people fail to sit down and watch a traditional evening newscast or read a paper anymore. According to Mitchell, television ratings for traditional evening newscasts are declining and the average viewers are senior citizens.

"A lot of people still watch evening newscasts," Mitchell said. "But, the numbers are much lower than they were in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s."

Mitchell said in today's world the news has become more "clickable." He said that thanks to new technologies such as Web streaming and 24-hour cable news channels, people are able to seek out the information they want, when they want it with just a couple of clicks of a remote control or computer mouse. However, Mitchell is optimistic this technology will help lure younger viewers to start paying more attention to traditional newscasts.

"Hopefully, as younger viewers grow older they'll want a traditional broadcast," Mitchell said.

One person who was glad Mitchell addressed this was Jan Hayes, a professor in Webster's communications department. Hayes brought some of her students to the lecture and said it was very beneficial.

"I was very glad (Mitchell) talked about the importance of newscasts and trying to attract some younger viewers back to (watching) some of that and not just strictly using On Demand," Hayes said.

Continued...

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