In the next few posts, By George Journal will explore the possibilities of our future news industry and how we will receive news of the day. Although most of us do not contemplate the fact, news is an essential service to a knowledge-base and free society. So, it is a serious matter that we ask ourselves, “What will be the future of news?”
The drastic changes in news delivery brought about by the advance of the Internet and, recently, social media has changed the organs of news forever. In the next decade, the traditional news sources of newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and television networks will not be packaging news the same way. It is questionable whether these organs will even survive the digital age. So, what news delivery models will emerge? Who will report and gather news? How will we receive our information?
There are many questions about an unknown future of news. In an in-depth report, Business Insider explored this very topic – and their conclusion was that the future of news “will be awesome.” Here are a few highlights from the BI’s lead editorial.
- People will have more sources of information and “news” than ever before. Sure, it may not all be from “professional journalists” with grad school degrees, but that isn’t a bad thing. Some of it will even come from machines! Yes, news sources will need to build trust as they always have. But that doesn’t mean they have to be able to afford a printing press or a bunch of broadcast spectrum to be relevant.
- Information will travel even faster and be more portable. Devices like the iPad, platforms like Twitter, and news reader apps like Flipboard are just the beginning. Remember when you had to get a newspaper or tune into a TV channel at a certain time to figure out what was happening around you? It will increasingly become woven into everyday life.
- You are your own editor. Not all the time. But sometimes. More and more news products will ask you to play a role in choosing what you want to learn about. Embrace this, but also ask for a professional editor when that’s better. (You can figure out which you prefer for what types of information.)
- It’s good to be a curator. Along those same lines: With more news sources than ever, someone needs to make sense of it all. Editing and curating are more important than ever. That used to be the company that bundled and packaged into a wad of paper or a 30-minute newscast. Online, it can range from Google’s news algorithm to small startups like Techmeme to one-man curation shops like Daring Fireball.
What is being described by Business Insider sounds like the industry will be placed on its head. YOU will be the future of news. The public will no longer be passive recipients of the news; individuals will have a role in shaping news stories and they will have the ultimate choice of what they receive.
Although the scribes at By George Journal do not share the same overwhelming enthusiasm for this outcome as those at Business Insider, we are presenting in the next few posts a series of comments from today’s prominent news personalities who answer the burning questions about the future. We acknowledge and thank the work of the Business Insider journalists who dug to deliver this insightful and provoking material.
(ed. – You can read the entire editorial and access links to further reading in the Business Insider special report on the future of news: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-news-is-going-to-be-awesome-2011-8#ixzz1V6lqxqyt )
