Media Role Model: David Muir
To me, David Muir is an intriguing figure in modern media and news today because he represents such a contradiction to the current media landscape. Throughout my time in Journalism school, many professors and colleagues alike have told me that the idea and notion of “traditional” storytelling- that idea of a few solid country-wide newspapers and broadcast anchors delivering most of the country’s news daily-is dead. Since so many jobs and publications have gravitated towards the Internet in the media landscape, the idea of a figurehead in broadcast news, such as a Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings, has now gone extinct.
However, when people make that argument, I fire back with, “What about David Muir?” People often seem to forget about him, and it’s easy to see why. Many broadcast anchors, to me, have stopped being anchors, seemingly because everyone thinks that position is dead. Instead, anchors have turned into corporate and political pundits, yelling at me through the TV to sit up and pay attention because they’re right, everyone else is wrong.
To me, that is a fairly annoying thing to endure, so much so that I stopped paying attention. However, I still watch and listen to David Muir because he does the complete opposite. Instead of raising his voice, he keeps it cool and calm. When he’s interviewing people, he doesn’t let their comments get to him or rattle him (much like how Gayle King behaved during that wild R. Kelley interview.) Instead, he keeps his focus on the story at hand, reporting, not shouting at you.
That seems, to me, to represent a shift from the popular norm of what broadcast news has become, yet I believe that’s what makes David Muir popular. He is cool precisely because he’s not trying to be cool. He’s like a throwback, in a way, to Tom Brokaw or Walter Cronkite, someone who is so confident he has your attention that he’s not even trying to get it, which, to me, is pretty special.
I believe this kind of embrace of old-school journalism reporting style is exactly what makes him so popular in the country right now. Granted, he is the anchor of “ABC World News Tonight”, so he probably doesn’t have to work too hard to find new stories, but that doesn’t matter. His cool, steady demeanor help him connect with people who are overwhelmed by the amount of news content out there. His show is the most popular news show in the world, averaging over 11 million viewers per night. I believe that kind of popularity makes him able to cross platforms and connect with different viewers. He also has excellent social media engagement, connecting with viewers both with personal social media profiles, coupled with ABC’s official social media accounts.
He may not be perfect (I was not impressed with how President Trump ran him over during his interview), but frankly, he might be one of the best journalists the country has right now.
Some stories I love by him:
