{"id":167333,"date":"2012-06-15T12:00:09","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yfiledev.uit.yorku.ca\/?p=167333"},"modified":"2025-04-02T09:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:27:15","slug":"journalism-has-changed-and-not-always-for-the-better-says-broadcaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/yfile\/2012\/06\/15\/journalism-has-changed-and-not-always-for-the-better-says-broadcaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Journalism has changed - and not always for the better, says broadcaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

News and news coverage is much different now than when Michael Enright started as a reporter more than 30 years ago. Journalism has changed radically \u2013 not always for the better, the host of CBC Radio\u2019s \u201cThe Sunday Edition\u201d told his convocation audience Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>\u201cDescriptions of events which used to take hours or even days to reach vast publics across the world are now transmitted in seconds,\u201d said Enright. \u201cAncient images of foreign correspondents in trenchcoats have been replaced by thousands of ordinary people, young people with cellphone cameras in crowded revolutionary squares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over a long and distinguished career, Enright has written for Time<\/em>, Maclean\u2019s<\/em>, the Toronto Star<\/em> and The Globe and Mail<\/em>. He was managing editor of CBC Radio News and a longtime co-host of CBC Radio\u2019s \u201cAs It Happens\u201d. A fearless interviewer with boundless curiosity and a commitment to looking at stories differently, he was at York to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.<\/p>\n

Michael Enright<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cReporting and commentary historically done by people we call journalists have been superseded by blogs and people we call bloggers,\u201d Enright told graduates from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. \u201cThe traditional form of news transmission, the daily morning or evening newspapers, is on life support and while the decline of print journalism seems to carry on apace, the electronic explosions of information proliferate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has led to a number of serious consequences for journalism, not all of them good,\u201d said Enright. \u201cOn the plus side, it has made more transparent the inner workings of journalism. It has made reporters more accountable for what they do. On the other hand, much of what passes for journalism these days is the tabloid reporting of inauthentic people doing inauthentic things. The tonnage of information we\u2019re constantly pouring out of our media in 24-7 all-news formats is making people crazy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe crave information and facts in the hope they will lead to understanding, insight, perhaps even wisdom, but there is a paradox at work here: we\u2019re so attached to the universe of instantaneous communication, that we sometimes feel disconnected from everything else, from the world even,\u201d said Enright. \u201cWe spend hours staring at screens, surfing, searching, soaking up images. We say it\u2019s our work and we have to do it or it\u2019s our hobby and we want to do it. I wonder what the impact is on our ability to understand things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enright said he might know more than he did at 20 but he wasn\u2019t sure he was any wiser. He shared \u201ca couple of things I\u2019ve learned along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend June Callwood taught me years ago that there are no innocent bystanders. If you come across pain in any form and do nothing to help, you are responsible. It is from her and people like her that I learned that small things are what give life its meaning,\u201d said Enright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned,\u201d he said, \u201cthat laughter is prayer, work is therapy, and music and poetry are gifts from heaven.\u201d That you should not do too much planning. \u201cAlways leave room for chance, for plain old-fashioned luck.\u201d That \u201cyou should constantly do, because action is more fulfilling than doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He advised graduates to \u201creread a book that you loved as a child\u201d, leave the room when grown-ups tell you to be realistic, learn to fix or make things with your hands.\u00a0 Remember, he said, that \u201cthings are never as bad as they appear. Most things improve if you simply get up and go outside.\u201d Learn to cook, to ride a motorcyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext time you give a loony to a homeless man, talk to him for five minutes, get his story.\u201d When you argue with your children, remember what a horse\u2019s ass you were at their age, he said. Develop the habit of learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember that women hold up half the sky and misogyny and murder of women anywhere is a crime against humanity,\u201d he said to cheers and applause.<\/p>\n

York\u2019s Spring Convocation ceremonies are streamed live and then archived online. To view Enright<\/a>\u2018s convocation address, visit the Convocation<\/span><\/a> website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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