NPR CEO speaks on media’s future

Vivian Schiller discussed journalism as an ever-changing field that people everywhere should care about.

Schiller, CEO and president of National Public Radio, spoke about the media and the field of journalism Monday to a packed audience at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

WFIU station manager Christina Kuzmych said Schiller faces the difficult task of embracing the traditions of NPR while also innovating the company.

“We are in very interesting times,” said Schiller, who was previously the senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com, according to NPR’s Web site.

She began by citing the dire circumstances the field of journalism is faced with. She said that 11 percent of full-time news jobs have been cut, newspapers are dying and resources allocated to national and international news are also being cut.

However, she maintained that the public and journalists should not be weary of this change, but instead embrace it.

“Out of the ashes of these dying newspapers will rise the era of new technology and journalism,” she said. “The Internet is the greatest thing to happen to journalism. We need to be where the audience is.”

Schiller said NPR is taking four main steps to combat the problems plaguing the field of journalism. She said that NPR must keep on keeping on, focus on diversifying their audience, bring up the quality and quantity of local journalism and build out the digital platform of journalism.

“There is a flowering of grass roots news reporting all over the nation,” she said. “I am as optimistic now about journalism as I have ever been.”

She instructed journalism schools to work with local public radio stations and support them and said that students should learn software development.

“Do not give up, and do not lose heart,” Schiller said to prospective journalists. “Every issue you care about needs the bright light shown upon it.”

During the question-and-answer session, Daniel Preston, School of Public and Environmental Affairs adjunct professor, asked Schiller about public option for the media, which means to have the government finance a national media source.

She responded that less than 2 percent of NPR’s funding comes from the government. Schiller expressed concern that government financed media could cause bias coverage issues.

“I would rather find another way,” she said.

Schiller said journalism is a field in transition. She said there are many paths and options for journalists to use to make content available for the masses.

“The best you can hope for is over time that you are fair and balanced,” she said.