Jane Hanson, former NBC cohost and current communication trainer gave communication advice to an auditorium of college students on a Friday afternoon on October 13th, 2017. A lot of her presentation, and later an interview, involved the concept that communicators have to consider their audience’s interests and what will ignite and hold their attention.

“You have to make (your video) shorter, especially for mobile. You have to make it more animated and probably more engaging now because people’s attention spans are so short,” says Hanson. Audiences have an attention span of about eight seconds. This further proves her point of how important it is to obtain an audience’s attention in the short time allowed.

Hanson is an Emmy award-winning television journalist who has spent over thirty years helping improve clients’ communication skills. She began as an anchor for NBC in 1979 and was named co-anchor in 1988 for “Today in New York.” In 2003, she became the station’s primary anchor for “Jane’s New York.” She’s covered 9/11, Yankee victory parades and interviewed celebrities, prisoners and presidents. About Jane Hanson.

As the assembly concluded and the mass group of students exited, about five students approached Hanson, giving her their questions and gratitude, and finally an eager young lady, spiral bound notebook and pen in her hands, approached her. Before the student could present an outstretched hand to her interview subject, still standing above her on the stage, Hanson quickly acknowledged her, remembering the student’s previous request for an interview.

Hanson continued to address the importance of audience’s desires in her interview with the student. She considers it important to research an audience before telling a story. She recalls her celebrity show, which was aimed at adult women who were home during the day. The network has to be able to tell who their audience is and what they would be interested in, plus when they would be available to view the program. She also considers the younger generation of audiences and how they would respond more to streaming and online medium than TV broadcasting. Overall, the goal is to reach that target audience.

It is also important to note, according to the Pew Research Center’s Public Broadcasting Fact Sheet, that PBS’s NewHour Program attracted 1 million viewers toward public television in 2016, which is 22 percent more than in 2015. Broadcast Fact Sheet Many people are paying attention to broadcast media, so it’s even more important to keep the audience in mind.

Hanson believes that the younger generation has to be attracted by a different media platform, since much of this audience streams and doesn't watch TV. National Public Radio's apps like the NPR New app and NPR One app both offer streaming. These programs have been increasing in use amongst devices. Broadcast Fact Sheet

TCNJ was so lucky to have Jane Hanson speak to their students and address the importance of a target audience and the similarities of journalism to marketing. Journalists have an important job of informing the public and they do so in a strategic manner. It was so beneficial to students with communications majors and students of similar majors to learn about the importance of communications skills from someone of so much experience.