As they say in show business, the show must go on. And yesterday, it did.

Students and faculty waiting to hear talk show host Maury Povich speak yesterday at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications were annoyed to learn-at the last minute-that he would not be showing up because of weather-related delays. Many guests left the room in frustration. But the few who stayed were rewarded with a lively discussion about the news and its effect on different generations.

Jim Brennan, a former television anchor, and Stephen Kimatian, regional vice president for Clear Channel Television, participated in a roundtable discussion, led by Bob Thompson, professor of television, radio and film and director of The Center for Popular Culture and Television. The debate focused almost entirely on the way people ages 18 to 30 deal with the news, as well as other issues, including the recent Dan Rather scandal at CBS, the differences between local and national news and reporting on issues which could interfere with sponsors.

‘On the news today, you have the real stuff, people making up stuff, people spinning stuff, late-night and comedic material and more, and it’s hard to tell what’s real,’ Kimatian said. ‘You just have to go with your gut.’

The panel also said it doesn’t matter if this young age group watches the news, since most of it isn’t targeted for that generation.

‘The majority of news watchers are ages 30-plus, so I can see the need to recruit 18- to 30-year-olds,’ Brennan said. ‘But if you start to program for them, you lose the high end of watchers, and there are a lot of them.’

Brennan also explained how the news cannot cater to everyone because the spectrum of expectations and topics is too broad. Instead, it keeps the same standards and waits for its target audience to mature.

‘When you graduate,’ Brennan said to the television hopefuls, ‘you’ll spend the next four to five years doing things that all people out of school do. Jump ahead X amounts of years, you’ll have a family and a house and are a loyal taxpayer and now the town wants to put a McDonald’s at the end of your street. Then the local news starts to mean something to you.’

It seems that the 18- to 30-year-old generation is currently hungry for entertainment, and the regular television news can never compete with its standards. Erin McCormack, an audience member and graduate student studying TRF, said that if the news is boring, then the generation won’t watch.

‘The days of pro-format news is coming to an end because our generation will not watch it,’ McCormack said. ‘When newscasters all say the same things, I just don’t give a crap.’

But programs like Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show,’ with its quick, sarcastic and entertaining news bites, does well with the age group.

‘If people in our business were smart, we’d figure out what your generation wants and how you want to get it, and then we’d give it to you, and you’d come back to us for more,’ Kimatian said. ‘The media should take a lesson from the way Jon Stewart communicates. There is energy in ‘The Daily Show’ that we should all pay attention to.’

McCormack said that today’s standard of news needs to be more entertaining.

‘From the news, I never get a sense of personality or flavor,’ McCormack said. ‘Even if it’s an interesting story, it’s as if they sat around in the editing room and said ‘How can we boring this story up.’ Whether we take it or leave it, people like Stewart at least have an opinion, and it appeals to our generation.’

Any news, even from programs like ‘The Daily Show,’ is better than no news at all, said Emily Stayner, audience member and graduate student in TRF.

‘Things like ‘The Daily Show’ get people interested in news because even Jon Stewart makes you think,’ Stayner said. ‘I also think if you didn’t know events that were going on in the world, or knew names like Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell, you wouldn’t get Stewart’s jokes.’

But news sources like ‘The Daily Show’ raise issues and discuss them briefly, forgoing much more information, Brennan said. People who use it as their sole news source may not be getting the full extent of any story.

‘For news to actually have an effect, people are going to have to turn off the entertainment side of their brain and focus solely on the information,’ Brennan said. ‘News will never be able to exist perfectly, but it always serves its place.’

Published on September 28, 2004 at 12:00 pm