20 Years of McCuistion: Media and the Internet (Pt. 4 of 6)

Join Dennis McCuistion in the fourth of a six-part retrospective series – 20 Years of McCuistion: Media and the Internet.

When we joined the ranks of the media in 1990, the worldwide web had just been invented. In fact, very few people even had access to email. Today? Blackberries and iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are all household names and media itself has changed as a result.

Now, many of us are getting our news online and foregoing paper copies altogether. Former news people are blogging and while many of us question the new style, we read the blogs and blog ourselves. This program explores how the Internet has changed our way of getting news, what news and the press really mean and its impact on democracy and public opinion.

In the last 20 years we have interviewed some of the most prestigious names in journalism including: Bill Moyers, Sam Donaldson, Bob Schieffer, Jim Lehrer, John Solomon, and joining in from a recent program, which featured Manny Mendoza and he and Mark Birnbaum’s doc-film, Stop the Presses, are Ben Bradlee, Anders Gylenhall, and Charles Ealey.

From the business world we’ve interviewed: the Father of the Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf, and Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web. We’ve gotten a perspective on news today from Steve Forbes and Mary Mapes, author of Truth and Duty, a book about President George W.  Bush’ military incident that led to CBS’s firing her and eventually Dan Rather. Jeff Crilley, an award winning Fox News reporter, ends the media segment, commenting on its changing landscape and the dangers and opportunities this presents.

This retrospective episode entertains and informs as it gives us a very interesting snapshot of the new world of media and communication, a world that through its ever changing evolution leaves many of us struggling to keep up.

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer

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1818 – 02.28.10