Here is the latest in the on-going series of essays, TV News in a Postmodern World. This is the 46th entry in the series and is cross-posted at morph, The Media Center’s blog.

This essay examines the conundrum of professional specialization, and how it becomes a net liability when technology takes the place of specialists. Too many television stations ignore the incredible flexibility offered everyday people — thanks to disruptive technologies — and, instead, fight them tooth and nail in the (mistaken) belief that a single individual can’t possibly do their job. In so doing, stations are missing cost-effective opportunities and running the risk of losing the video news niche in their markets downstream.

BONUS: Fred Hutchinson emails from the deep end of the pond:

The eighteenth century was the era of the versatile generalist.

During the next century the rise of the era of the credentialed specialist began — which was good for technology but bad for general culture. I wonder if the blog world is a swing back to the generalist? I am a versatile polymath, facilitated by the www.