September 25, 2001

WKYU-PBS To Air Award-Winning Documentary On TV News

Bowling Green, Ky. - "The State of American TV News: Traditional versus Tabloid," an award-winning documentary produced by Western Kentucky University's Terry Likes, will air twice next month on WKYU-PBS.

Western's Public Broadcasting service (Channel 24) will televise the 30-minute documentary at 9 p.m. Oct. 10 and 10 a.m. Oct. 14.

The documentary offers views on the state of the news business from several leading broadcasters, including NBC's Brian Williams, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, ABC's John Cochran and Hugh Downs, and former CNN president Tom Johnson. Also included are interview excerpts from former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, radio commentator Paul Harvey and "60 Minutes" host Mike Wallace.

The program addresses several questions: Can we compare today's journalism practices to the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite? What effect do the tabloids have on traditional news coverage? Do journalists adhere to a code of ethics?

In 2001, the National Press Club honored Likes with its Arthur Rowse Award for Media Criticism. The program was produced for radio in 1999 and won first-place honors from The Associated Press and the Broadcast Education Association.

The documentary, which originally aired last fall on WKYU-PBS, has been televised in Evansville, Ind., and will be broadcast next month in Little Rock on the Arkansas Educational Television Network.

"The State of American TV News" has become a teaching tool for college professors at schools such as the Columbia School of Journalism, Southern California, American University, Baylor and McNeese State.

"The program shows students the rich, yet short, history of broadcast journalism," said Likes, who received his master's from WKU and doctorate from the University of Kentucky. "It introduces them to the foundations of broadcast journalism provided by Murrow, Cronkite and others. It also helps students understand the difference between tabloid and more traditional news programs."

Likes, a former TV news reporter, has taught broadcast journalism at Western since 1988. He oversees students who broadcast news on WWHR-FM, the student radio station, and is faculty adviser for WKU NewsChannel 12, the student-produced TV newscast.

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