• NewsLab, Monday, July 26, 2010 12:10 AM

As television newsrooms expect more of their journalists to work solo, the trend is affecting both newsgathering and the product that airs. Many news managers believe VJs offer more flexibility at a lower cost with little or no reduction in quality. But new research suggests it's not all good news. Mary Bock of Kutztown University spent two years studying the VJ revolution. Her unpublished dissertation highlights many of the challenges faced by journalists who report, shoot, write and edit. Some may be obvious: It's tough to do this kind of physical work and still look good at 5 p.m. Another is that since they work solo, they "see themselves as having less freedom to take chances with their stories."

Bock says the trend toward using VJs for daily news has resulted in more stories that are mapped out -- or even written -- in advance. She also finds that solo journalists can't do the same work as quickly as a team of two, which has led some news managers to reassess VJs' value.

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