Ever wonder who really decides what becomes “news”?
In this episode of Laid Off and Looking, we go inside the assignment desk, the nerve center of every newsroom with Professor Benjamin Davis, award-winning journalist and Chair of Multimedia Journalism at Morgan State University.
Davis has worked at ABC News, MSNBC.com, and NPR, and he’s here to break down the uncomfortable truth:
👉 The stories you see (and the ones you don’t) are shaped by business pressures, predictability, executive preferences, trending topics, and now… AI.
🔍 In This Episode, We Explore:
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Intro
01:46 - “Yellow Journalism” History Lesson
05:56 - Interview Begins
08:14 - Stacking the Rundown
11:12 - Selling a Story
14:02 - How to Know When You’re Show is Bad
16:30 - How to Do Local News
18:04 - Harsh Truths
20:23 - Citizen Journalists
32:51 - Follow the Technology
36:40 - What We’re Missing
40:00 - Oh Lord These People
42:56 - The Risks of Freelancing
46:01 - AI in the Newsroom
51:58 - Why Did You Become a Journalist?
🎧 Professor Benjamin Davis
Professor Davis is a veteran journalist, educator, newsroom leader, and soon-to-be founder of a citizen-journalism app designed to empower the public ethically to tell stories newsrooms can’t or won’t.
💬 Why this episode matters
The public often believes “the media refuses to cover certain stories.”
This conversation explains why newsrooms make the decisions they make, what’s missing, and how journalism must evolve if it wants to survive the era of distrust and digital chaos.
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Ever wonder who really decides what becomes “news”?
In this episode of Laid Off and Looking, we go inside the assignment desk, the nerve center of every newsroom with Professor Benjamin Davis, award-winning journalist and Chair of Multimedia Journalism at Morgan State University.
Davis has worked at ABC News, MSNBC.com, and NPR, and he’s here to break down the uncomfortable truth:
👉 The stories you see (and the ones you don’t) are shaped by business pressures, predictability, executive preferences, trending topics, and now… AI.
🔍 In This Episode, We Explore:
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Intro
01:46 - “Yellow Journalism” History Lesson
05:56 - Interview Begins
08:14 - Stacking the Rundown
11:12 - Selling a Story
14:02 - How to Know When You’re Show is Bad
16:30 - How to Do Local News
18:04 - Harsh Truths
20:23 - Citizen Journalists
32:51 - Follow the Technology
36:40 - What We’re Missing
40:00 - Oh Lord These People
42:56 - The Risks of Freelancing
46:01 - AI in the Newsroom
51:58 - Why Did You Become a Journalist?
🎧 Professor Benjamin Davis
Professor Davis is a veteran journalist, educator, newsroom leader, and soon-to-be founder of a citizen-journalism app designed to empower the public ethically to tell stories newsrooms can’t or won’t.
💬 Why this episode matters
The public often believes “the media refuses to cover certain stories.”
This conversation explains why newsrooms make the decisions they make, what’s missing, and how journalism must evolve if it wants to survive the era of distrust and digital chaos.
Ever wonder why the news, especially TV news is the way it is?
This week on Laid Off and Looking, veteran TV news director and journalism educator turned media critic, Jennifer Schulze shares some frank words on how broadcast journalism went off track.
From shrinking newsrooms and corporate pressure to the obsession with “going viral,” Schulze explains how decades of cutbacks and bad incentives turned a public service into a ratings race. She also reflects on what it takes to rebuild trust and why the next generation of journalists might still be our best hope.
🎙️ In this episode:
00:00 - Start
01:00 - Intro
02:10 - No More Breaking News @Brodmop on TikTok
06:38 - Ratings Or Information?
09:24 - The Billionaire Influence
10:30 - What Really Broke TV News
17:44 - What It Takes to Stay Employed
19:39 - Fake News Catastrophe
23:08 - Trusting Local News
25:57 - The Op-Ed Albatross
35:58 - Information Curation is Still Needed
46:08 - Paywalls Were A Mistake
47:46 - Is This Still A Safe Career?
52:33 - Credits
If you’ve ever worked in a newsroom, watched one fall apart, or wondered who still believes in journalism, this conversation is for you.
Laid Off and Looking
Ever wonder who really decides what becomes “news”?
In this episode of Laid Off and Looking, we go inside the assignment desk, the nerve center of every newsroom with Professor Benjamin Davis, award-winning journalist and Chair of Multimedia Journalism at Morgan State University.
Davis has worked at ABC News, MSNBC.com, and NPR, and he’s here to break down the uncomfortable truth:
👉 The stories you see (and the ones you don’t) are shaped by business pressures, predictability, executive preferences, trending topics, and now… AI.
🔍 In This Episode, We Explore:
00:00 - Start
00:37 - Intro
01:46 - “Yellow Journalism” History Lesson
05:56 - Interview Begins
08:14 - Stacking the Rundown
11:12 - Selling a Story
14:02 - How to Know When You’re Show is Bad
16:30 - How to Do Local News
18:04 - Harsh Truths
20:23 - Citizen Journalists
32:51 - Follow the Technology
36:40 - What We’re Missing
40:00 - Oh Lord These People
42:56 - The Risks of Freelancing
46:01 - AI in the Newsroom
51:58 - Why Did You Become a Journalist?
🎧 Professor Benjamin Davis
Professor Davis is a veteran journalist, educator, newsroom leader, and soon-to-be founder of a citizen-journalism app designed to empower the public ethically to tell stories newsrooms can’t or won’t.
💬 Why this episode matters
The public often believes “the media refuses to cover certain stories.”
This conversation explains why newsrooms make the decisions they make, what’s missing, and how journalism must evolve if it wants to survive the era of distrust and digital chaos.
