Ann Compton

Ann Compton says she goes about her job as usual, attending briefings and covering speeches, but the end product of her work and other journalist’s work, has changed dramatically with the advancements in technology. 

“The end product is shorter, brighter, it’s punchier, it has more moving parts, more elements, it’s more interesting and it really boils everything down to the smallest common denominator,” Compton said.

Compton is a broadcast journalist for ABC News and is covering her sixth president for the company.  She is well known for being the only journalist allowed to remain on Air Force One with the President immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11.  She has spent most of her career at the White House, Capitol Hill and covering many presidential campaigns. 

Compton spoke with students from George Mason University and Pace University in a video conference session moderated by C-SPAN's Steve Scully. Students listened and were able to ask questions about her career as a journalist and the way the profession is changing with new technology and multimedia.

“The technology these days, the video and the audio, it develops so quickly, anything you know about the internet and multimedia 10 minutes ago is probably already obsolete,” Compton told the online journalism students.

Multimedia vs Traditional Journalism

While she says she will always believe that nothing will ever be stronger than the power of the written word, Compton believes this new age of multimedia news will have a significant impact in the next presidential elections.

“I won’t say that YouTube and some of the blogs will become more important, but they become a breading ground for extra information that you just can’t find anywhere else,” Compton said.

In addition to her thoughts on multimedia, Compton also spoke to the students about more traditional forms of media outlets such as television and radio.  She gave the students suggestions for news writing, but more than anything stressed to the possible future journalists about how important it is to receive news from a variety of sources.

“The trouble with writing for more traditional news is that you have to write your pieces so short, there is a great chance of distorting reality,” Compton said.  “Nobody should ever rely only on radio, only on newspapers, only on television; you really need to get your news from several different sources.”

In addition to speaking about multimedia and traditional journalism, Compton added her thoughts about President Bush’s ability to speak to the public, the press during events such as Watergate and Sept. 11, and her daily routine as one of America’s top journalists.