At MediaMasters, John Seigenthaler, Jr., tells students they are key as media evolves

 

The economy and the digital revolution have made today a “dark time” for journalism, former NBC anchor John Seigenthaler Jr. told a crowd of journalism practitioners and educators on Wednesday. But diversity of media outlets does offer a bright future for communications majors, he continued.

 

Citing layoffs at media outlets nationwide, budget cuts and shrinking newspaper sizes, Seigenthaler painted a bleak picture for traditional media in 2010.

 

“The business model for television and newspapers doesn’t seem to be working anymore,” Seigenthaler said. “Traditional ads are drying up, online ads aren’t growing.”

 

The former NBC weekend anchor and special correspondent visited Lipscomb on Wednesday as the inaugural guest in the MediaMasters speaker series, sponsored by the Department of Communication in the College of Arts & Sciences. MediaMasters is designed to honor communications professionals whose body of work stands as a model and inspiration for the next generation.

 

Each MediaMasters speaker will spend a day on the Lipscomb campus meeting with students and faculty in addition to speaking at a community event.

 

Seigenthaler said he was impressed with the progress Lipscomb has made since the days when he first started his media career in Nashville.

 

Seigenthaler told students about his experiences covering Hurricane Katrina, the Sri Lanka tsunami, bombings around the world and his personal experience with the fall of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

 

During his decades in the media business, Seigenthaler also worked as an anchor for MSNBC and The News on CNBC, and substitute anchor for NBC Nightly News, Dateline NBC, TODAY and Meet the Press. He now serves as CEO/New York of Seigenthaler Public Relations.

 

In addition to a luncheon with local reporters, publishers and journalism educators, Segienthaler spoke to students and the public Wednesday evening on the New Media Revolution.

 

Although “newsrooms across the nation are being decimated,” Seigenthaler said he has hope for the future of communication because “our young people are interested in these stories and will be around to write them.”

 

In fact, Val Hoeppener of the First Amendment Center based in Nashville, noted during the luncheon that there are now more students enrolled in journalism programs than ever before, probably because of the vast array of multimedia news delivery options in today’s media environment.

 

“In some ways there are more voices being heard than ever before,” Seigenthaler said, “but can the media model support those new voices as well as the traditional media?”