Final Assignment: New Media in Journalism: Possibilities & Pitfalls

Marshall McLuhan once said that “every new technology is an amputation.” vs. “No medium disappears, it adapts.” By Jeffrey Cole USC Annenberg Center
What is the downside of the digital revolution, as it pertains to journalism?

1) Historically, was McLuhan correct or not? Answer: Partially.
2) What does this mean for journalism? Possibilities And Pitfalls
3) What are options going forward ?: New Technology, New Rules & New Options.

TED Talk by J. Surowiecki of The Wisdom of Crowds says under certain conditions, the collective knows more than any of its individuals can know.
The positive side of this can be seen in our classroom discussion and highly touted headlines of participatory citizen journalism.
The darker side of this trend is that through forming a network, independence of thought can be easily lost. Networks, by their nature, shape views and interaction of their participants. Paradoxically, without that independence of thought, networks cannot be moved forward but will persist in regurgitation of “accepted” information. These Meme pile-ons can be seductive but with a dangerous undercurrent of action without thought.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/james_surowiecki_on_the_turning_point_for_social_media.htm


Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. He said: “Traditionally 70 percent of a big-city newspaper has been advertising. There will never come a day that 70 percent of thenewyorktimes.com will be advertising. But while their revenues from advertising may be smaller, they also — if you look at a newspaper’s budget, only 30 percent of it goes to editorial, goes to writers and editors. Seventy percent of it goes to printing and distribution, and those costs almost disappear in a digital world.”
When drastic cuts are required, it seems crazy to focus them on the minority portion of one’s business. Consider taking a chunk out of the printing and distribution side of their expenses by getting out of print, in whole or in part. There are many downsides and risks to that move, of course, but as one attendee at the API summit said, “We have nothing to lose.”
http:/http://www.niemanlab.org/2008/11/the-newspaper-summit-lots-of-lines-all-going-the-wrong-way

Side-point: include what did EPIC 2015 get right – and wrong in its predictions about the future of news?