May 14, 2025 • 20 mins
The executive director of the Peabody Awards and professor at the communications school at the University of Georgia explains the uniqueness of the Peabody Awards and its process. He also discusses the difficulties of categorizing content these days and how electronic media is meeting the challenge of covering Trump 2.0.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today, my
guest is doctor Jeffrey P. Jones. He's the executive director
of the Peabody Awards and a professor in the Communications
School at the University of Georgia, which has administered the
(00:29):
Peabodies since nineteen forty. Jones and I discuss what makes
the Peabodies unique in an area where there are no
shortage of awards for entertainment and media. The twenty twenty
five Peabody winners will be formally presented at a ceremony
in Beverly Hills on June First. We also talk about
the challenges of categorizing content in this era. Given that
(00:52):
Jones is a media scholar who has written numerous books
about how TV, news and comedy influenced culture, I had
to ask him how he thinks the US news media
is handling Trump two point zero. That conversation is coming
right up after this break, and we're back with the
(01:23):
conversation with Peabody Awards Executive director Jeffrey P. Jones, Doctor
Jeffrey Jones, thanks so much for coming to my office today.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Thank you, Cynthia.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We've been talking about doing this for a while as
the Grady College has been stepping up the profile of
the Peabody Awards, and you're getting ready for your event
here in Los Angeles on June first. What is unique
about what it means to win a Peabody Award.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We're the oldest award for broadcasting. It began before television,
so nineteen forty and I mentioned that lineage in that
as technology has changed, we've continued to award cable and
then pay per view which it used to be called,
but in streamers and so and in more recent years
(02:10):
immersive and interactive media. So really what makes Peabody unique
or are that kind of platform agnostic dimension also can't
campaign for it. There is no twenty three thousand members voting. Instead,
it's a jury of eighteen people that meet face to
face and decide the award unanimously. So that's the process
(02:33):
that makes it unique. But really what makes it unique
is that it is about the story itself and what
we see in this moment of just a plethora a cacophony,
choose the right word for the type of media is podcasting, documentaries,
(02:53):
you know, data journalism, animation, video games, VR. Stories can
be told in just so many different ways scripted, television, Hollywood,
you know, foregrounds, but there are many many ways to
tell stories.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And you didn't even TikTok in stue.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Absolutely social media. We award those. Now.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's really, I'm going to imagine, quite a challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It is, but it's also a privilege in that it's
wonderful to sit around in a room of eighteen people
who dedicated their life to media. We get twelve hundred
submissions and they go through screening committees. But there are stories, platforms,
production companies, artists we've never heard of, and they come
through and you'll just listen to jurors go, I'm just
(03:42):
blown away by this. I'm blown away by the story.
So that's number one. Number two for us. We get
to talk about rural health care, we get to talk
about trans rights or disability rights. The perennial issues are
always sexual violence and racial injustice. Is more recently far
right and authoritarian regimes. And so because we're looking at documentary,
(04:07):
because we're looking at news, and entertainment and then these
different platforms. It's really artists telling stories and journalists and documentaries.
But I call them artists telling stories in as powerful
ways as they can. As a professor at the University
of Georgia, I would say, the great privilege is this
are the types of media that we as citizens need
(04:30):
to be engaging with, and you know, it's it's amazing
to be able to do that.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
There is no question that in the Emmy race or
in other awards racism a level of you know, there's
a level of how big is the network, how big
is the audience there are and we all know there's
been shows that had very small audiences on streamers and
even small audiences on HBO that racked up tons of Emmys.
But there's something about the Peabodies that it is it's
(04:58):
still even even with those that are that have sort
of niche followings, they're still from generally the larger studios,
whereas as you say, like you get submissions from all
over the place and the storytelling prowess, you know that,
and it is it feels like because the Peabodies are
known for recognizing such a range of content, some of
(05:19):
it produced on a local level, some you know, some
produced on the national level. It has that reputation so
that I'm guessing you know that it comes in and
there's a level playing field. Just tell me how good
and how compelling story is, and that's I mean, that's
got to really be exciting in terms of talent discovery
and just like literally what everybody says, but literally finding
(05:40):
new voices.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
A couple of good examples of what you're describing this
year would be Weird Lady Parts, but also Mister Bates
versus The.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Post Office, which is just show. I had not even
heard of it. It's a PBS, I believe. Let me
ask you, just in truly practical terms, how do you
define what's a television series versus what's short form content?
Are there any eligibility kind of framework for the peabodies
that have been challenged by the proliferation of formats and
(06:09):
content and frequencies.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Not for some of what you're saying, but the biggest
eligibility challenge for us has been films. So it's and
it says a lot about the history of television and film.
So documentary has always been a film, but its primary
exhibition platform for years was television, So documentary has been
(06:35):
always recognized and it's obviously reportage and connections to news,
so it's always been a part of Peabody. But as
the streamers have come along and are now producing what
they call feature films, you know, is that television or
is that cinema? And that has been a bit of
(06:56):
a challenge for us. We don't recognize feature films yet,
you know, ABC Movie of the Week in the nineteen seventies, right,
or HBO has made in essence movies that Peabody has recognized,
Temple Grand in Game Change that have won Peabody Awards.
(07:17):
They're made for TV movies in essence, but on HBO.
So it's been it's been difficult as Netflix and others
have moved so strongly into competing for Film Academy Awards
and are producing what sometimes have cinema runs and sometimes
(07:38):
very limited cinema runs. What constitutes you know, television in
this day and age and what is a film? And
the only thing that we can say is that they're
calling them a film, they're treating them like films, and
obviously the formats but as you say, it can be
short run and different. So that's been the one challenge
(07:59):
for us is just, uh, we already do film and documentary,
but we don't do feature films, and streamers have complicated that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I bet the list of entertainment honorees includes it was
a good year for EPEX. It includes things like Showgun
and Baby Reindeer collected a whole lot of Emmys this
past Paul, do you think jurors do they weigh at
all when they're coming to consider peabodies, Like, do they
weigh shows that have gotten so much recognition elsewhere?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It's not really its own measure. I mean, I think
we're always aware of the ted Lasso's that have great
popular appeal and show but Showgun wins its award because
of its art and in particular because it's an artistic
statement that stands in such contrast to its predecessor from
(08:51):
many years ago. And so when it's done so beautifully
like that, with all due respect to Richard, yeah, yeah,
with all due respect indeed, so it's commercial appeal or
better yet it's even as industry success might be mentioned
in the room, but it's not really a weighing factor.
(09:11):
I think it's usually the power of the narrative itself.
So Showgun. I mean, look, there's plenty of things that
win a lot of Emmys that we don't give, but
there are you know, Secession wins a Peabody. Last of
Us wins a Peabody to bear the great Television. They're
winning Emmys for a reason beyond just campaigns for them.
(09:32):
You know, do you have.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A set number of slots in each category?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
No, we do not. We do not. Yeah. So it's
one of the great things about Peabody is I think
there's only seven entertainment this year. Last year there were ten.
It's based upon what is at there. So these are
face to face deliberations through nanimous vokal, like I said,
so we whittle it down. But often I think, especially
(09:59):
with our inner tainment, is you know what, what's the
message at the center of it? Uh? Uh that that
that matters a bit. And you know, we don't stick
too hard to that. We do popcorn stuff too, But
but there is a degree of what's what's the showrunner
in particular trying to communicate and how well and how
(10:22):
does it match with the times? And uh and so
sometimes a show like Secession, for instance, is obviously extremely
current and and and playful and fun and great writing
and great acting and all that.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And like politics, all television is local.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Indeed, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
from my conversation with Jeffrey P. Jones. And we're back
with more from Peabody Awards Executive director Jeffrey P. Jones.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I always look for the locals, the local TV onorees
because so many of them are the investigative reports, and
it will really restore your faith in local TV that
people are out there turning over rocks, doing the hard
work and doing real investigative work. And it's not just
stations in New York and LA quite in quite the contrast,
(11:19):
I think some of our the largest stations on the coasts,
could you know, stand to put a little more emphasis
and into investigative because every year I've noted stations in Dallas.
Clearly there's a culture in that market of doing good
investigative stuff. And now the great thing is nowadays is
you can go and look. You can find these segments online.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I'm glad you pointed out Dallas. There's an array of
stations King Fox Television in Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas, Indianapolis,
Atlanta that can that consistently put money into investigative reporting,
and we just you know, you won't find a bigger
(12:01):
critic of bad television news than me, But I'll tell
you Peabody has also showed me that these folks do
amazing work and it's exactly what local television should be
doing and does well, and it really does revive your faith.
And if all politics are local, this is where rubber
meets the road. They get results, they get, you know,
(12:25):
laws changed, they get in essence, people fired who've engaged
in corruption and other nefarious acts. And so it's a
it's a really it really does restore your belief in
what great journalism can do at that local level. And
I agree with you. I think the coach could do better.
These stations have put resources into it, and we're always
(12:47):
blown away. Phil Williams won three out of a Nashville station.
He's an amazing reporter at the local level. He won
last year, he's winning in this year. Remember he's in
a red state doing really tough issues about neo Nazis
and the far right. And you know, kudos to doing
that in an area that's probably tough to report in.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Every survey still shows that the majority of Americans, probably
not the majority of younger Americans, but the majority of
Americans get their news from local TV news. In fairness
to my locals, I do want to say that our
local stations really rose to the occasion in the LA fires,
the coverage of excellence, and that's where and it would
(13:30):
just be so nice during the rest of the year
to see, you know, a level of like that level
of seriousness.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
We will see those next year.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
And it'll be interesting to see in the coming years
the kind of local investigative and the ripple effects from
the utterly unprecedented stuff going on in Washington. How that
how that ripples down into the grassroots. I suspect will
be reflected in future Peabody. Yes, yes, finalists and winners.
Let me ask you, is it true. I remember reading
(14:01):
or hearing from somebody that you not only have a
course an archive of every winner, but you have an
archive of every submission.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yes, it's We are the third largest archive of audio
visual materials, only behind Library of Congress and UCLA.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It has to be hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, only five percent of it's been digitized. Yeah, it's
an extraordinary repository. In fact, we did I'm a professor
and we did a book called I Forget exactly, but
it's about the Peabody archiving cultural memory through the University
of Georgia Press, and it's it was literally I think
of the titles that we reviewed, only one had won
(14:40):
a Peabody. It's our cultural memory is shaped by television
and what we know and understand of it. And there
is just amazing television from the sixties and seventies at
the local level when there used to be a real
FCC licensure requirement. Local stations produced amazing news and documentary
(15:04):
and even scripted. There's an Ozzie and Davis and Ruby
doing a performance in Dallas. It's just amazing stuff. And
Peabody has this archive and it is you can look
it up online through our library catalog and request that
they digitize it, which they will do and you can
(15:27):
and then they'll give you a link and you can.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
See just scholars access.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Oh absolutely, but even documentaries like what was it called
Mister Soul? You know that one of Peabody We had
some tapes that were very hard to find. A Questlove
Summer of Soul got some documentary material from there, so
you will find uh, it is this true archive. But
but to your point instead, you know, only so we
(15:53):
get twelve hundred subisions a year, there's only thirty winners.
The great value of this is that broadcasters have sent
us what they consider their best work since.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Nineteen forty, the cream of the crop.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's amazing. It's an amazing repository.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
That's a good segue into let's I wanted to ask
you a question using the professor side. Sure of your
job here you are the lamb and cape professor in
the entertainment and Media studies that those at UGA, which
is very well known for its communications, and it's an
entertainment department as well as RIM. I can't let that
go as a charter charter Rim, But you've written a
(16:30):
couple of books about political news and satire and how
comedy and you know, the things you were just talking about,
how television shapes our perceptions of our lives. How do
you think in this moment, and not to get too political,
but just in this moment of I think what we
can all agree is fairly chaotic in Washington, and this
effort to reshape the federal government and therefore other aspects
(16:52):
of our lives how do you think television is rising
to this moment? What stands out to you is the
differences between media cove Bridge and the public reaction to
Trump two point zero versus the first time around.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think there's a collective shock at the pace of it,
and every outlet that I whether we're talking social media
or print publications that you know are manifesting the digital era,
or traditional cable news or everyone is just trying to
(17:30):
keep up that the pace of the pace of and
you call it what it is, it is radical change
is vastly different than the political norms and cultures that
we've experienced in the past. As as that happens daily,
everyone that are reporters, such as yourself, are trying to
keep up just what can how can I report truth?
(17:54):
And of course, you know, for those of us who
do journalism, it's journalism is not just a story. It's
often a continuing story that has to be gone over
and over and over again and dug and resourced. And
just when you have so much change happening so quickly,
it is truly an avalanche. So to me, I feel
(18:17):
deeply empathetic toward anyone trying to be honest to their
readers and viewers and listeners, and with that pace of
change and just everyone feeling overwhelmed by it all, it's
a difficult task if you're a media producer. I do think, folks,
it's going to be interested to see what happens in
(18:38):
scripted because the type of politics that we're in have
made the owners of the means of production skittish about
the political realities they all face. In a regulatory world
and in a legalistic seem to be changing, changing and
(18:58):
getting sued and this type of thing. So the owners
versus the artists who may want to engage in this
or not. But you know, as somebody who deeply believes
that entertainment can often tell truths in ways that news
may not be able to capture, especially about the human
(19:19):
cost and the desire for empathy from viewers. To see
what things happen. As we have stories of extra judicial
legal forces taking citizens and shipping off to Gulag's, I'm
interested to see what our artists want to do with
(19:41):
that and whether they're going to be allowed to tell
those stories. It is a really interesting time to be alive,
and someone in the position that peabodies is in watching
that and trying to again shine spotlights on stories that
do it really well. It's to be an interesting few
years for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
That views for sure. Jeffrey, thank you so much. I've
really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Thank you for having me. It's been big fun.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
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don't forget to tune in next week for another episode
of Strictly Business
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations with
industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm
Cynthia Lyttleton, co editor in chief of Variety. Today, my
guest is doctor Jeffrey P. Jones. He's the executive director
of the Peabody Awards and a professor in the Communications
School at the University of Georgia, which has administered the
(00:29):
Peabodies since nineteen forty. Jones and I discuss what makes
the Peabodies unique in an area where there are no
shortage of awards for entertainment and media. The twenty twenty
five Peabody winners will be formally presented at a ceremony
in Beverly Hills on June First. We also talk about
the challenges of categorizing content in this era. Given that
(00:52):
Jones is a media scholar who has written numerous books
about how TV, news and comedy influenced culture, I had
to ask him how he thinks the US news media
is handling Trump two point zero. That conversation is coming
right up after this break, and we're back with the
(01:23):
conversation with Peabody Awards Executive director Jeffrey P. Jones, Doctor
Jeffrey Jones, thanks so much for coming to my office today.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Thank you, Cynthia.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We've been talking about doing this for a while as
the Grady College has been stepping up the profile of
the Peabody Awards, and you're getting ready for your event
here in Los Angeles on June first. What is unique
about what it means to win a Peabody Award.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
We're the oldest award for broadcasting. It began before television,
so nineteen forty and I mentioned that lineage in that
as technology has changed, we've continued to award cable and
then pay per view which it used to be called,
but in streamers and so and in more recent years
(02:10):
immersive and interactive media. So really what makes Peabody unique
or are that kind of platform agnostic dimension also can't
campaign for it. There is no twenty three thousand members voting. Instead,
it's a jury of eighteen people that meet face to
face and decide the award unanimously. So that's the process
(02:33):
that makes it unique. But really what makes it unique
is that it is about the story itself and what
we see in this moment of just a plethora a cacophony,
choose the right word for the type of media is podcasting, documentaries,
(02:53):
you know, data journalism, animation, video games, VR. Stories can
be told in just so many different ways scripted, television, Hollywood,
you know, foregrounds, but there are many many ways to
tell stories.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
And you didn't even TikTok in stue.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Absolutely social media. We award those. Now.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
It's really, I'm going to imagine, quite a challenge.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
It is, but it's also a privilege in that it's
wonderful to sit around in a room of eighteen people
who dedicated their life to media. We get twelve hundred
submissions and they go through screening committees. But there are stories, platforms,
production companies, artists we've never heard of, and they come
through and you'll just listen to jurors go, I'm just
(03:42):
blown away by this. I'm blown away by the story.
So that's number one. Number two for us. We get
to talk about rural health care, we get to talk
about trans rights or disability rights. The perennial issues are
always sexual violence and racial injustice. Is more recently far
right and authoritarian regimes. And so because we're looking at documentary,
(04:07):
because we're looking at news, and entertainment and then these
different platforms. It's really artists telling stories and journalists and documentaries.
But I call them artists telling stories in as powerful
ways as they can. As a professor at the University
of Georgia, I would say, the great privilege is this
are the types of media that we as citizens need
(04:30):
to be engaging with, and you know, it's it's amazing
to be able to do that.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
There is no question that in the Emmy race or
in other awards racism a level of you know, there's
a level of how big is the network, how big
is the audience there are and we all know there's
been shows that had very small audiences on streamers and
even small audiences on HBO that racked up tons of Emmys.
But there's something about the Peabodies that it is it's
(04:58):
still even even with those that are that have sort
of niche followings, they're still from generally the larger studios,
whereas as you say, like you get submissions from all
over the place and the storytelling prowess, you know that,
and it is it feels like because the Peabodies are
known for recognizing such a range of content, some of
(05:19):
it produced on a local level, some you know, some
produced on the national level. It has that reputation so
that I'm guessing you know that it comes in and
there's a level playing field. Just tell me how good
and how compelling story is, and that's I mean, that's
got to really be exciting in terms of talent discovery
and just like literally what everybody says, but literally finding
(05:40):
new voices.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
A couple of good examples of what you're describing this
year would be Weird Lady Parts, but also Mister Bates
versus The.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Post Office, which is just show. I had not even
heard of it. It's a PBS, I believe. Let me
ask you, just in truly practical terms, how do you
define what's a television series versus what's short form content?
Are there any eligibility kind of framework for the peabodies
that have been challenged by the proliferation of formats and
(06:09):
content and frequencies.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Not for some of what you're saying, but the biggest
eligibility challenge for us has been films. So it's and
it says a lot about the history of television and film.
So documentary has always been a film, but its primary
exhibition platform for years was television, So documentary has been
(06:35):
always recognized and it's obviously reportage and connections to news,
so it's always been a part of Peabody. But as
the streamers have come along and are now producing what
they call feature films, you know, is that television or
is that cinema? And that has been a bit of
(06:56):
a challenge for us. We don't recognize feature films yet,
you know, ABC Movie of the Week in the nineteen seventies, right,
or HBO has made in essence movies that Peabody has recognized,
Temple Grand in Game Change that have won Peabody Awards.
(07:17):
They're made for TV movies in essence, but on HBO.
So it's been it's been difficult as Netflix and others
have moved so strongly into competing for Film Academy Awards
and are producing what sometimes have cinema runs and sometimes
(07:38):
very limited cinema runs. What constitutes you know, television in
this day and age and what is a film? And
the only thing that we can say is that they're
calling them a film, they're treating them like films, and
obviously the formats but as you say, it can be
short run and different. So that's been the one challenge
(07:59):
for us is just, uh, we already do film and documentary,
but we don't do feature films, and streamers have complicated that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
I bet the list of entertainment honorees includes it was
a good year for EPEX. It includes things like Showgun
and Baby Reindeer collected a whole lot of Emmys this
past Paul, do you think jurors do they weigh at
all when they're coming to consider peabodies, Like, do they
weigh shows that have gotten so much recognition elsewhere?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It's not really its own measure. I mean, I think
we're always aware of the ted Lasso's that have great
popular appeal and show but Showgun wins its award because
of its art and in particular because it's an artistic
statement that stands in such contrast to its predecessor from
(08:51):
many years ago. And so when it's done so beautifully
like that, with all due respect to Richard, yeah, yeah,
with all due respect indeed, so it's commercial appeal or
better yet it's even as industry success might be mentioned
in the room, but it's not really a weighing factor.
(09:11):
I think it's usually the power of the narrative itself.
So Showgun. I mean, look, there's plenty of things that
win a lot of Emmys that we don't give, but
there are you know, Secession wins a Peabody. Last of
Us wins a Peabody to bear the great Television. They're
winning Emmys for a reason beyond just campaigns for them.
(09:32):
You know, do you have.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
A set number of slots in each category?
Speaker 2 (09:36):
No, we do not. We do not. Yeah. So it's
one of the great things about Peabody is I think
there's only seven entertainment this year. Last year there were ten.
It's based upon what is at there. So these are
face to face deliberations through nanimous vokal, like I said,
so we whittle it down. But often I think, especially
(09:59):
with our inner tainment, is you know what, what's the
message at the center of it? Uh? Uh that that
that matters a bit. And you know, we don't stick
too hard to that. We do popcorn stuff too, But
but there is a degree of what's what's the showrunner
in particular trying to communicate and how well and how
(10:22):
does it match with the times? And uh and so
sometimes a show like Secession, for instance, is obviously extremely
current and and and playful and fun and great writing
and great acting and all that.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
And like politics, all television is local.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Indeed, don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
from my conversation with Jeffrey P. Jones. And we're back
with more from Peabody Awards Executive director Jeffrey P. Jones.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I always look for the locals, the local TV onorees
because so many of them are the investigative reports, and
it will really restore your faith in local TV that
people are out there turning over rocks, doing the hard
work and doing real investigative work. And it's not just
stations in New York and LA quite in quite the contrast,
(11:19):
I think some of our the largest stations on the coasts,
could you know, stand to put a little more emphasis
and into investigative because every year I've noted stations in Dallas.
Clearly there's a culture in that market of doing good
investigative stuff. And now the great thing is nowadays is
you can go and look. You can find these segments online.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I'm glad you pointed out Dallas. There's an array of
stations King Fox Television in Seattle, San Francisco, Dallas, Indianapolis,
Atlanta that can that consistently put money into investigative reporting,
and we just you know, you won't find a bigger
(12:01):
critic of bad television news than me, But I'll tell
you Peabody has also showed me that these folks do
amazing work and it's exactly what local television should be
doing and does well, and it really does revive your faith.
And if all politics are local, this is where rubber
meets the road. They get results, they get, you know,
(12:25):
laws changed, they get in essence, people fired who've engaged
in corruption and other nefarious acts. And so it's a
it's a really it really does restore your belief in
what great journalism can do at that local level. And
I agree with you. I think the coach could do better.
These stations have put resources into it, and we're always
(12:47):
blown away. Phil Williams won three out of a Nashville station.
He's an amazing reporter at the local level. He won
last year, he's winning in this year. Remember he's in
a red state doing really tough issues about neo Nazis
and the far right. And you know, kudos to doing
that in an area that's probably tough to report in.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Every survey still shows that the majority of Americans, probably
not the majority of younger Americans, but the majority of
Americans get their news from local TV news. In fairness
to my locals, I do want to say that our
local stations really rose to the occasion in the LA fires,
the coverage of excellence, and that's where and it would
(13:30):
just be so nice during the rest of the year
to see, you know, a level of like that level
of seriousness.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
We will see those next year.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
And it'll be interesting to see in the coming years
the kind of local investigative and the ripple effects from
the utterly unprecedented stuff going on in Washington. How that
how that ripples down into the grassroots. I suspect will
be reflected in future Peabody. Yes, yes, finalists and winners.
Let me ask you, is it true. I remember reading
(14:01):
or hearing from somebody that you not only have a
course an archive of every winner, but you have an
archive of every submission.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Yes, it's We are the third largest archive of audio
visual materials, only behind Library of Congress and UCLA.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
It has to be hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, only five percent of it's been digitized. Yeah, it's
an extraordinary repository. In fact, we did I'm a professor
and we did a book called I Forget exactly, but
it's about the Peabody archiving cultural memory through the University
of Georgia Press, and it's it was literally I think
of the titles that we reviewed, only one had won
(14:40):
a Peabody. It's our cultural memory is shaped by television
and what we know and understand of it. And there
is just amazing television from the sixties and seventies at
the local level when there used to be a real
FCC licensure requirement. Local stations produced amazing news and documentary
(15:04):
and even scripted. There's an Ozzie and Davis and Ruby
doing a performance in Dallas. It's just amazing stuff. And
Peabody has this archive and it is you can look
it up online through our library catalog and request that
they digitize it, which they will do and you can
(15:27):
and then they'll give you a link and you can.
Speaker 3 (15:29):
See just scholars access.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Oh absolutely, but even documentaries like what was it called
Mister Soul? You know that one of Peabody We had
some tapes that were very hard to find. A Questlove
Summer of Soul got some documentary material from there, so
you will find uh, it is this true archive. But
but to your point instead, you know, only so we
(15:53):
get twelve hundred subisions a year, there's only thirty winners.
The great value of this is that broadcasters have sent
us what they consider their best work since.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Nineteen forty, the cream of the crop.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's amazing. It's an amazing repository.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
That's a good segue into let's I wanted to ask
you a question using the professor side. Sure of your
job here you are the lamb and cape professor in
the entertainment and Media studies that those at UGA, which
is very well known for its communications, and it's an
entertainment department as well as RIM. I can't let that
go as a charter charter Rim, But you've written a
(16:30):
couple of books about political news and satire and how
comedy and you know, the things you were just talking about,
how television shapes our perceptions of our lives. How do
you think in this moment, and not to get too political,
but just in this moment of I think what we
can all agree is fairly chaotic in Washington, and this
effort to reshape the federal government and therefore other aspects
(16:52):
of our lives how do you think television is rising
to this moment? What stands out to you is the
differences between media cove Bridge and the public reaction to
Trump two point zero versus the first time around.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think there's a collective shock at the pace of it,
and every outlet that I whether we're talking social media
or print publications that you know are manifesting the digital era,
or traditional cable news or everyone is just trying to
(17:30):
keep up that the pace of the pace of and
you call it what it is, it is radical change
is vastly different than the political norms and cultures that
we've experienced in the past. As as that happens daily,
everyone that are reporters, such as yourself, are trying to
keep up just what can how can I report truth?
(17:54):
And of course, you know, for those of us who
do journalism, it's journalism is not just a story. It's
often a continuing story that has to be gone over
and over and over again and dug and resourced. And
just when you have so much change happening so quickly,
it is truly an avalanche. So to me, I feel
(18:17):
deeply empathetic toward anyone trying to be honest to their
readers and viewers and listeners, and with that pace of
change and just everyone feeling overwhelmed by it all, it's
a difficult task if you're a media producer. I do think, folks,
it's going to be interested to see what happens in
(18:38):
scripted because the type of politics that we're in have
made the owners of the means of production skittish about
the political realities they all face. In a regulatory world
and in a legalistic seem to be changing, changing and
(18:58):
getting sued and this type of thing. So the owners
versus the artists who may want to engage in this
or not. But you know, as somebody who deeply believes
that entertainment can often tell truths in ways that news
may not be able to capture, especially about the human
(19:19):
cost and the desire for empathy from viewers. To see
what things happen. As we have stories of extra judicial
legal forces taking citizens and shipping off to Gulag's, I'm
interested to see what our artists want to do with
(19:41):
that and whether they're going to be allowed to tell
those stories. It is a really interesting time to be alive,
and someone in the position that peabodies is in watching
that and trying to again shine spotlights on stories that
do it really well. It's to be an interesting few
years for sure.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
That views for sure. Jeffrey, thank you so much. I've
really enjoyed the conversation.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Thank you for having me. It's been big fun.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
at the podcast platform of your choice. We love to
hear from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and
sign up for the free weekly Strictly Business newsletter, and
don't forget to tune in next week for another episode
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