What media revolution?

I was in a meeting yesterday with Andrew Heyward, the former CEO of CBS News, where he made the argument that what seems like revolutionary developments in the news media the past few years is actually an evolutionary change that began decades ago with the advent of the television remote.

“The most important invention in television in the last century was not satellite or computers, it was the remote control,” said Heyward.

Why? The remote control was the beginning of what he called consumer empowerment. Interestingly though, and I agree with him on this one, he said not to discount the power of traditional media like many people are starting to do because they still have the power of a very large audience.

“Don’t let the evangelists, and they’re all over the place, scare you into thinking that everything you do and everything you know and everything you’ve learned has to be thrown out the window. You have to think much more about this history of media. New forms of media have come to exist along side the old ones.”

On Authenticity, transparency, connectedness
“The reason Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are popular is not just that they’re funny, it’s that they are able to get to the heart of the matter and tell it like it is in a way that traditional media have shied away from. Even though they are doing it for laughs, they seem more authentic often than the people that they are parodying. So, shame on us if the satirists are more authentic then they people they are satirizing.”

On the Erosion of Traditional Authority in Media
Walter Cronkite used to sign off his broadcast with the phrase “that’s the way it is,” but something like this would be an absurd claim in 2006 because people have access to many other sources of information, Heyward said. An anchor today is more likely to approach news from a standpoint that says “here’s a little bit of what we we’re able to put together.” By doing this “news organizations can make a more authentic claim to credibility,” Heyward said. “It’s not based on brand or on history . . . but based on having actually done the work.” Authenticity is going to be a good watchword for news, but traditional media brands are going to have to exist side-by-side with upstarts. The upstarts are often going to beat the traditionalists.”