OpEd:
Age Bias In Media Reporting/Journalism
September 10, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: Jouranlism, New Media, News, Newspapers, Old Media, Reporters, TV
As required by the FTC, a Full Disclosure is available - this piece adheres to the Code of Ethics
There’s a disturbing trend seen over the last decade: age has become a critical factor for a television news anchor, valued reporter, or any other position that involves direct interaction between “the people” and news services, occurring across all forms of Old Media. This trend of believing age is a factor in talent, skill, believability, or overall trustworthiness is not only disturbing, but is both ruining the experience of younger talents and contributing to the demise of Old Media itself.
The age of reporters has been increasing steadily since the debut of television news, and can be clearly seen with the announcement of Diane Sawyer, at the age of 63, to take up ABC’s World News anchor position. There are occasions when a person is kept because of their talent more than age, such as Tom Brokaw, but these are few and far between – more often than not, an anchor is held onto due to name recognition and their familiarity and not any specific set of talents or skills that could not be found in slightly fresher faces. In looking across all networks, the age of those involved in primetime television news averages near 40, and often eclipses it, and the average increases if local news outfits become the focal point. Television is not alone in this bias, as their also-dying brethren in newspapers have the same issue of pandering to older generations, and in-between publications such as TIME or Newsweek have similar, albeit lessened, problems. Why, then, is this the case?
It would seem that the answer may lie in the audience’s comfort level with familiar faces, even when those familiar faces are aging, untalented, and lack any basic intelligence. But by chasing ratings over talent, the companies are feeding the cyclical nature of their own demise: younger generations are going to be less interested in individuals old enough to be their parents or grandparents for the delivery of news or opinions, if they’re even interested in the activities of Old Media at all. Evidence for this fundamental truth can be found not only in human nature, but in the fact that while individuals under the age of 30 increasingly flock to the Internet as a source for news and entertainment, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and Colbert Report continue to have wonderful ratings within that same demographic for infotainment - exactly what CNN, NBC, ABC, and others produce, no matter their higher minded claims.
Both of Comedy Central's news shows are spearheaded by men – Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, respectively - who are in their mid-40s, but appear to be much younger at heart and in mind than their network counterparts. But more to the point, their regular contributors and correspondents are typically younger comics, like John Oliver (age 32, debuted at 29), who are vibrant, full of life, and in touch with what the under-30 demographic are interested in – exactly opposite the major news outlets.
The fact that it takes a journalist an average of twenty years to reach any position of credibility or public visibility is quite likely a deterrent for many young journo’s interested in the field, who may choose to take their talents elsewhere. More importantly, by cultivating an increasingly older crop of journalists, those who are new or inexperienced are not allowed the very experience required for them to later reach exalted positions – a problem seen throughout most industries in today’s “need experience, not college kids” environment.
This bias is also pushing an increasing number of interested young-guns to New Media, where their age is seen as a perk and not a disadvantage, for blogging, Internet-video, and a number of other budding online news production outfits and methodologies. The rise of blogs, online news, YouTube, and others is no coincidence, and those who unconditionally embrace it are the future of media, no matter how hard Old Media outlets continue to push aged commenters on a passive audience – more specifically, this means younger, faster, and more savvy individuals will soon rule the journalism game, quickly turning the tables on their predecessors, bringing a new meaning to “journalistic age bias”.
Network news, newspapers, and magazines have created this culture where age is valued over talent, connections over ability, and name recognition over actual worth – now they must deal with its consequences.
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
