The recent announcements that Katie Couric will become anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, and that Meredith Vieira will replace Couric on the “Today Show” have me thinking.  Ten to 15 years ago, 40 something year-old women working in broadcast journalism were wondering what the future held for them – was it in broadcast news or were they going to have to go to Plan B – to a career outside of broadcast journalism that had a track record of being more welcoming and accepting of aging women?  Now, Couric, 49, and Vieira, 52, appear to be breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling – or are they?

Our male and female students probably aren’t spending much time thinking about this.  They aren’t watching broadcast network news or reading newspapers. News and information delivery systems and content have changed so much in recent years that network television news has become less important, some might even argue irrelevant. The students we’re teaching are accessing their news and information from the Web, cell phones, podcasts, and cable stations like CNN, Fox News, MTV, and Comedy Central (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart).  And, the fact that just about anyone who has an internet connection can now produce and disseminate information to the masses changes the power structure.  The person who delivers the nightly broadcast news isn’t “the player” he once was because we can get our news and information 24/7 from a whole host of sources via any number of delivery systems.  So, female television journalists who happen to be 40 something are finally “making it,” reaching the top at a time when the top, as we’ve traditionally defined it, isn’t so important or prestigious anymore.