Ted Koppel Receives IOP Award

Network news another Ted Koppel, receiving an award for lifetime achievement in journalism at the Kennedy School of Government, said last night that technology has put television news "on the cusp of massive change."

Koppel, the anchor and editorial manager of ABC's "Nightline," was presented with the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism by the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center for Press, Politics and Public Policy.

In his address to an audience of more than 400, Koppel said that innovations like the information superhighway, which will one day include 500 channels of information accessible by television, will change the television industry forever by giving potential viewers access to any program at any time.

"It's a consumer's dream," Koppel said.

The specialization of news on the information network, Koppel said, would force television to go the way of newspapers and magazines, which have branched into specialized fields such as entertainment, sports and tabloid journalism.

Koppel called this fragmentation of programming a "lousy idea." He said he worries that a gulf of knowledge would exist between classes if television were to cease being "the great homogenizer."

"Those of us who are well-educated and wealthy will be able to use this sort of thing extraordinarily well," said Koppel.

But the "proles," like the uneducated proletariat class in George Orwell's 1984, will have to rely on free mass communications, resulting in a sharp discrepancy of knowledge of world affairs and current events between classes, Koppel said.

"That frightens me," he said. "Do I know how to change it? No."

Koppel also addressed changes in the television industry that have ignited an ever-intensifying battle between entertainment and hard news.

Koppel said he thought the recer Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding case received more intense media coverage than the San Francisco earthquake or the fall of the Berlin Wall. He said this reflected an unfortunate but necessary part of journalism today.

"We have always done our sleaze programs. We do them to get ratings," Koppel said. "They key is to maintain a balance."

When audience size impacts the value of commercial time, Koppel said, high ratings are critical to a program's survival. Programs with high ratings can offset lower-rated programs on subjects such as Bosnia and the economy.