Kennedy Assassination: Turning Point for Our Nation...and the Media

This week marks the 50 anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, and while this -- along with JFK's meteoric rise to the Presidency -- had a tremendous impact on our nation, there's one aspect to this chapter in US history that bears a closer look.  We'll likely never forget the role of media -- how it changed that week in November 1963 and how it has evolved since then.  Kennedy had already been part of a turning point for the media with the televised Presidential debates, which played a huge part in his victory over Richard Nixon.  But in 1963, we saw viewers waiting by their televisions for an update after news of the shooting spread across the country.  We saw Walter Cronkite delivering this news, a moment that established him as the nation's preeminent face of the media -- and TV as its powerful new delivery vehicle.  And many watched live on TV as Kennedy's assassin was himself shot and killed.  Until that time, one might argue we were still primarily dependent on newspapers -- and the Boston Globe is recalling those days this week with reprints of the front pages around the Kennedy assassination.  Today, network news and their anchors don't carry the weight that Cronkite did in the aftermath of November 1963, and newspapers are struggling to survive.  Today, we'd be more likely to learn about events like this on Twitter or Facebook -- from citizen journalists rather than the professionals.  I hope there's room for both traditional media and social media...and whatever comes next.  And I wonder what the media landscape will look like in 2063, when we reflect one of this year's watershed media moments -- the Boston Marathon bombing -- and Twitter's role in days reporting on unfolding developments.  One thing is certain -- there will be changes, and that's what makes watching the media's evolution so interesting.