"Backpack Journalism" - affecting news quality?

[elfin]

First newspapers, now TV -- cuts cuts cuts --

Snip --

Will the increased demand for correspondents' multi-tasking hurt the quality of their reporting?

That's the big question as prodigious job cuts at ABC and elsewhere force more correspondents to shoot their own video, gather their own sound and edit their own pieces in addition to reporting them.

Certainly, the consolidation saves money, but at what cost to journalism?

To many, the question is moot. Digital one-man bands are the inevitable result of a receding economy and an advancing technology. Expand your skill sets or it's game over.

Others argue that reportage suffers when a correspondent - particularly a veteran used to having a crew - botches a breaking interview because he's worried about getting the shot.

Snip --

"The only way to survive in this business is to keep shifting," says Ifill, 54, moderator of "Washington Week in Review" and senior correspondent for "The NewsHour." (She is on the short list for the anchor job at ABC's "This Week," sources say.)

"We have to change our ideas about what we're putting on the air," Ifill continues. "I'm not willing to say it's a terrible, terrible thing. But if you're not worried, you're not paying attention."

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/state_of_the_news_media/the_shot_heard_round_the_industry_backpack_journalism_on_the_rise_153194.asp#more

[spanone]

1. journalism has been replaced by ratings