a vision of the future of mass media journalism
blogs will be the first place that news breaks, and the only place to go for serious, insightful reporting. local newspapers will be replaced with loose networks of local blogs. national newspapers will be driven to extinction by algorithms (e.g. google news, blogdex) and information clearinghouse blogs (e.g. boingboing, slashdot).
the wikimedia projects (wikipedia, wiktionary, wikinews) will overtake the new york times (still refusing to open their archives) to become the “news of record,” the first place people go for unfamilar information or to followup on previous events (after google).
eventually the cultural importance of wikipedia will spawn the wikiprint project (in a joint venture with lulu and the american library association) in order to provide periodically printed editions of the latest versions of all wikipedia articles. when the national newspapers go up for sale, the wikimedia foundation will start buying their archives and hiring a few wiki-friendly reporters and editors to work on developing content and editing full time.
cable news will become entertainment (wait, the future is already here) pandering to specific demographic and political groups. the daily show will outgrow comedy central to emerge as its own network; later internet distribution of their reports via bittorrent will outpace revenue from cable. it will attract the 18-34 year old, liberal intellectual demographic in spades, covering the news with a sense of humor while providing the most utterly devastating analysis of the issues of the day. expect the daily show to buy npr in order to deliver podcasted audio content and to support legacy radio devices.
fox news will carry the banner for the right, eventually replacing all of their “serious” anchored news segments with roundtable, debate shows, spewing a venom of hate, intolerance, moral superiority, and war-mongering. fox news will buy clearchannel. advertising billboards in middle america will read “the heartland: you’re FOX country.”
local tv news will be replaced by what we now think of as public access television, delivered over the web, but with the advent of low cost digital video recording and editing equipment, it will rival the cable networks in terms of quality, cutting edge content, and personal engagement. most future film makers will get their start producing pieces for local video websites.
‘legacy radio devices’ he he
lol. That reminds me of all the extreme posting about libraries disappearing and going virtual.
Very insightful. Add in the bit about “Content creators will rise up against the business interests of the RIAA/MPAA and demand that copyright law be brought into a more sensible form. The next generation of lawmakers will incorporate the Creative Commons licenses into US Copyright law, adding provisions for code as well as consumable media. This will spawn a remix culture that will sweep the globe, pushing the US out of the center of the entertainment industry and relocating it in China, India, and the former Soviet Union.”
If Fox buys Clearchannel, then lookout, the Pubs will control all
all except the blogs!
My view of the future of mass media is that live news will dominate. Broadcasts will focus on sensational stories that will attract huge audiences unable to skip commercials because the shows are live. I wrote a novel entitled “Mars Girl” which explores these ideas, available for free download at http://www.manybooks.net (search for Mars Girl) or http://www.uptonroadpress.com.