Breathless

Final Blog Assignment
• Which present-day news media will still be around, which, if any, are likely to disappear, and how will they evolve? What new forms of news media do you foresee?
o All forms of present-day news media will be around, aside form the daily newspaper, as we know it. Even it will evolve in to a daily online news feed tailored to individuals. It will move online outside of printed high-end publications for the intellectual, business, government and academic elite. In the end, the battle will be for influence instead of eyeballs.
o Free Radio will boom and be offered over the Internet by sites like Pandora and be radios’ only framework.
o TV will merge with home computer producing single- screen experience as a norm for each individual. All the same outlets will be available on personal mobile devices. These will receive personalized data and targeted advertisement by an over simplified-consumer brand grouping as a reaction to consumer-centrism. TiVo – or a similar DVR device will be used to record all shows on demand and without advertisements.
o Niche radio and TV channels will expand infinitely to match vastness of the web where both TV and radio will exist.
o Ad Money will be recouped through product placement deals within shows and celebrity endorsements.
o The Viewers will be offered a “paycheck” to view advertisements. This payment may consist of bonus shows of choice for free.
o Internet will be the connecting force among all distribution outlets and will be provided for free to consumers throughout all major cities- and growing outlying communities.

• What role will economics play in shaping the future of our news media system? How will we pay for news?
o Non Profit Supported
• Think Tank & Intelligence Communities funded
• “Philanthro-capitalism” / “venture capitalism” will grow
• Public Trusts like Poynter Foundation will throw in for local support.
o Individual Investment
• Select Pay Subscriptions will maintain (Like The Economist & WSJ online)
o Government Funded
• Issues of tax-funded government messaging will emerge
o Business-oriented generated reports purchased by Business Analysts, companies with special-interests and Wall Street types.

• What consequences will the changes that you foresee have for the way our democracy functions?
o The “Fourth Estate” will no longer be the watchdogs and gatekeepers in their traditional sense. They will need to adopt the role of “beacons of quality” in the dark, to be followed by the masses as the masses gather information behind them.
o They will need to be editors and interpreters of the information supplied by crowds. They will be able and willing to provide context and analysis in the midst of information overload.
o Their valued and trusted opinions and insights will become the touch points from which ‘pro-sumers’ can build or question. (See definition below)*
o Transparency will be all-important in their information gathering, analysis and dispersion. Interaction with their audiences will be mandatory and daily.
o It is possible their role may be staffed by a team of respondents to speak with one voice reflecting the figurehead.

• What role will non-professionals play in the production and distribution of news?
o They will be “Pro-sumers”*: both consumers and producers of news, able to edit and distribute quality material. Unfortunately, the quality may be low or high, truthful or fanciful.
o Sites will need to seek legitimization and consumers will vet sources of information through crowdsourcing. Their source of legitimization will be built through the constant information exchange provided by social networking sites and forums like Twitter. Also, rating systems will develop organically in all forums where consumers gather. These rating systems will then stand on there own and be used as guides to the vast information landscape.
o They will fall into and out of favor, be cannibalized by “new and better” methods of judgment.

Why will it happen this way?
o It is in man’s nature to seek order in chaos, and certainly the infinite information available as a result of the Internet is “chaos” to a human mind.
o We will usher in an era of mass collaboration. Widespread input will be the norm but in this noise, we will search for a voice to make sense of it all – a leader of the masses.
o Ultimately then, we will rebel against that leader. The cycles being trend-countertrend-trend- countertrend…hi-tech to hi-touch, bits and bytes of news to broader and deeper news context, opinion leaders to mass collaboration.
o Finally and ultimately, the answer to “why” remains: “It’s the economy, Sir.”

With any luck at all, media consumers will find and acknowledge the middle road before they jump it. I will not be holding my breath.