Brent Tolman

Staff Writer

Lawrence W. Lichty, professor at Northwestern University, spoke to faculty and students at the College of Communication and Information’s 28th Annual Research Symposium on Friday.

The title of the symposium and theme of Lichty’s speech was “Moving Toward the Future: Convergence of Communication and Information.”

The main focus of Lichty’s speech was the effects of convergence on different media outlets.

“The idea of convergence is not new,” Lichty said.

He explained how convergence has historically connected television, radio and newspapers.

Lichty said that in 1931 radio executive Fred Smith began a ten-minute news program based on Time magazine. Smith would write scripts that announcers would reenact, called dramatic news.

“We’re really lucky that didn’t catch on,” Lichty said.

According to Lichty, the program would always end with the message “for more reporting like this, pick up a copy of Time.”

Lichty said that in the 1960s through the 1980s “communications were seen as mostly one way.” In the past most news was disseminated through newspapers, radio and the network evening news with a strong emphasis on opinion leaders.

Lichty said “technology has created many alternatives” since then. Historically there have been only a few ways for people to obtain information but now there are around “25 items of Communication Technology.” Some examples include the Internet, cable and blogs.

In the past, reporting used to be more interactive with more people involved, said Lichty. But new technology has forced the mass communications industry to reevaluate the connections between the communicator and its audience. Another issue that the media has to deal with is amateur bloggers, which Lichty described as “passionate, committed, and [having] political interests as well.”

“We need to look again at our idea of professionalism,” Lichty said. “Being able to report on anything, anywhere is the ideal of journalism schools.”

Lichty gave an example of the differences in interactivity between communicators and audiences as a result of convergence and the changes the news media have had to make. In 1968 a historical event occurred when 20 million people watched a prisoner in Vietnam being shot. At the time there were a few letters complaining that the coverage of an execution was in bad taste. Now there are reporters like Kevin Sites who can cover the war in Iraq by single-handedly writing, taking pictures and shooting video for their blogs. According to Lichty, Sites has in the past received more than 500 e-mails a day in reaction to his Web site, http://www.kevinsites.net.