KCBS In Depth: New Dean Settles Into Role at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism
BERKELEY (KCBS) - The sky is the limit for those who want to get into the news business.
So says Edward Wasserman, who is clearly enjoying his new role as Dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. The new digital age of information may make our heads spin at times, but Wasserman sees it as a time of unlimited potential for his students.
KCBS In Depth: The State of Journalism
Wasserman is the sixth person to lead Cal's graduate program in journalism. UC announced the appointment in June 2012; he was installed as Dean on January 1, 2013.
Wasserman is recognized as a renowned expert on media ethics, politics and economics - with a solid quarter-century of newspaper reporting and editing of his own.
"Anybody with a smartphone now can reach a larger audience than the most widely circulated paper on Earth could have done 50 years ago," he pointed out. "And anybody with a smartphone can read more information, can access more information, than the best sourced reporter on Earth could have done a half-century ago."
"So," he continued, "you have this explosion of communicative capabilities."
Wasserman intends to help guide his students to grab and make best use of the devices in the digital age - while still holding fast to long-standing rules of journalistic ethics.
"People want topical information, topical commentary, they want fact-based narratives, you know they want that and now we can give it to them in a far, far more compelling way."
"Good papers are still good, small community papers are doing pretty well and that's just papers. You have to then look at this explosion of media outlets and media channels online," said Wasserman.
KCBS In Depth, our weekly half-hour news interview, airs Saturdays 5:30a.m.; Sundays 8:30 a.m., 8:30 p.m. on 740AM & 106.9FM.
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