In a speech invoking Thomas Jefferson, the images of Agent Orange . . . news as junk food . . . and Tom Cruise's baby, veteran CBS News broadcast journalist Bill Kurtis urges professional journalists meeting in Chicago to "do your job" of "communicating problems to intelligent people who can solve those problems." Kurtis delivered a keynote address to the annual convention of the Society of Professional Journalists at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago on Friday, Aug. 25, 2006. In a post-speech Q&A, Kurtis says the 15-second-attention rule for broadcast news stories as been misinterpreted. Broadcast news industry research studies about the attention span of viewers advise keeping story elements to 15 seconds. Kurtis says news directors have interpreted this to mean each story should be about 15 seconds. But the actual research, says Kurtis, doesn't say that, he told a questioner in a post-speech Q&A. A longer-form story can hold viewers' attention if it is tightly scripted and has a fresh transition or point every 15 seconds. "Somehow, we have gone off on this path thinking the American public is stupid," Kurtis said. In Chicago, where he used to be a news anchor, Kurtis says local stations report crime and shooting stories in the 15-second format. "There's no [time for] followup, except the followup that the police tell you." As a result, he suggested, documentaries are shifting to movie theaters from television. He cited as an example what was originally "a PowerPoint by Al Gore" which has become, Kurtis said, "wildly popular" as the documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." (MGP profile) "Kids are hungry for that," Kurtis said. (LINK TO SPEECH)
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