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While having some dental work done last week, I had a TV screen stuck in front of me.  It was showing Nostradamus: 2012, from Armageddon Week on the History Channel.   In this intellectual investigative report, a solemn, authoritative male voice objectively narrates what some scholars believe and what other scholars believe.  Particular scholars appear as talking heads.  Bottom-third text boxes on the screen show the scholar's name, usually "Ph.D." after the name, and, on a line below, the scholar's scholarly affiliation.   They seriously debate the question of Nostradamus's predictions.  Viewers are encouraged to assess the facts presented and to come to their own conclusions.

Emerging from the earliest English newspapers and the first deliberately styled objective report of current public opinion, Armageddon Week on the History Channel is the apotheosis of a particular style of public reporting.  This style flourishes in a era of expensive media, when editors make crucial affective choices about what to present to viewers.  It trades on conventions of authoritative knowledge created in circumstances in which obtaining knowledge is difficult.   The ongoing collapse of traditional media might at least offer better opportunities for different styles of reporting.

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The above video documents the production of a ten-second news segment for a U.S. national news network. In this segment, a network correspondent declared that the (then) upcoming Indiana primary is a "must win" for Hillary Clinton.

The production involved a satellite truck, a two-person video crew, and the news correspondent. The production location apparently was chosen so that behind the correspondent would appear the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the U.S. Capitol. Why the segment was shot live to air isn't clear. Being live to air required the crew and the equipment to be in place at the time of the broadcast, waiting for the on-air cue, and required the satellite truck to relay the signal.

The camera crew had years of experience and large equipment. They also had an on-camera, focused microphone that could cut out extraneous background noise like a plane flying overhead. This video crew could make great video.

The correspondent was a 19-year television news industry veteran. Among other reporting positions, he had served as an embedded video reporter in Iraq. He undoubtedly is intelligent and knowledgeable.

Let's hope that changes in the news industry and new video economics result in much better use of such talents, skills, and resources.

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