While serious TV news content has been shrinking on the major American networks, there are some signs that foreign news reporting may be making a comeback. BBC News executive producer Rome Hartman told a Duke Parents Weekend audience this past Saturday.
The new U.S.-targeted nightly newscast he produces for BBC America may be the best evidence of new life in the TV news business, he said. The program packs headlines, expert analysis, interviews and roundtable discussions into its 7-8 p.m. ET slot.
Hartman's talk in Perkins Library's Rare Book Room was part of its "Library Presents Duke Moms and Dads" series. Hartman's son Alex is a first-year student at Duke.
The Washington, D.C.,-based Hartman shared some of his experiences from 30 years in the TV news business, including his time as executive producer of the CBS Evening News.
He detailed a media landscape in which documentaries and newsmagazines have been pushed aside in the major networks' primetime lineup. Dateline, once airing five nights a week on NBC, has been reduced to one hour of "true crime" coverage, "that is really more drama than news," he noted.
Still, he said good documentary work is being done, only it's moved to the Discovery Channel, PBS and CNN, among other places.
Hartman says he hopes ABC News' recent decision to assign seven reporters to new overseas posts will be the beginning of a trend. It was the network's largest expansion of foreign bureaus in two decades.
"Maybe they'll begin to get back into the world," Hartman said. He said ABC found it could extend its reach relatively cheaply by hiring young people and giving them today's cheaper laptops and satellite video connections.
Hartman's hopes his new BBC America program, which premiered five weeks ago, will challenge the networks to offer more foreign news and analysis of their own.
News consumers need to resist the temptation to retreat into an information bubble, he said. The World Wide Web, he said, gives people the ability to live their lives without ever watching something they disagree with.
The lowered barrier to web publishing also means that consumers can't take all they see at face value, he said: "We've got to act as our own editors."
Hartman also outlined his plans for covering the upcoming presidential election, saying he wants to invite foreign reporters based in Washington to come into the studio and share their perspectives.
With the 2008 elections in mind, he singled out politico.com for praise, calling it an "amazing resource."