- NOT THE FUTURE: Image by Getty Images via Daylife
OK – quick assignment for people.
Tonight, I will be going to the Christian Science Monitor’s Centennial panel on “The Future of Journalism.” Of course, the Monitor has seen the future is online, not in dead tree forms, and is moving its daily edition online early next year.
But I wanted to ask all of you out there – and I am asking this here, on Twitter, and wherever else I can think of – one question.
Complete the sentence: “The future of journalism is…”
Discuss.
UPDATES FROM THE TWITTERVERSE: Doug Haslam retweeted my question and got a few more answers to add to the pile.
From @jimphelps: crowdsourced, focused content, at the moment of occurence, highly interlinked, multimedia and collaborative.
From @cheapsuits: …online.
From @paulswansen: dead in it’s current form. (Ted note: Not so uplifting, but pretty darn accurate, considering the state of the hosts of the forum.)
Don’t forget to check the comments page to read what others are saying, when they are less encumbered by the 140 character limit.
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The future of journalism is …in giving consumers mobile applications that allow them to receive and interact with the news & blog content they care about – on their terms.
The future of journalism is focusing less and less on the traditional journalist and more on the ordinary average person reporting what they see in their community. It has become so easy for anyone to post up the events in their community with video, pictures, and of course text. I think it is a safe bet that if a media outlet does not embrace this, it will find itself in the back of the line.
Interactive.
It’s already moving in that direction, with CNN’s Rick Sanchez using Twitter during his broadcasts, with blogs further emerging as a powerful source of news and information (Huffington Post is a great example), and publications like Businessweek turning to the audience to determine the stories they write. While it is sad to see the end of print in so many ways, the way that technology is morphing journalism is still pretty exciting.
. . .multi-platform, amateur-and-pro combined (see above) and site-specific. Expect Kindle, Twitter, paper, Web, phone, video, all searchable and sortable depending on where you access it. Dial in to fetch nearby movie times and restaurant reviews or maybe Web-surf to find news about the area you are in (without having to know the media outlet URL).
See you tonight, Ted — great challenge question.
The future of journalism is what our global culture decides to make of it. As consumers, we have a choice to select media outlets that serve us recycled stories, stories filed before facts are checked and stories that serve no purpose other than to invoke fear and paranoia. As consumers, we also have a choice to select media outlets that entertain, provide thoughtful commentary or objective witness. The choice for the future is ours.
As you post – are there examples you point to? (I have a list of my own, that I need to write up – that might be a weekend follow-up.) Of course, in some ways, the ideas are the easy part – creating the reality is the challenge.
I like the conversation developing here… and will be fascinated to see some of the angles tonight.
And at the very least, I will be compiling all your comments in a one-stop-shopping post. (How multi-platform it will be remains to be seen.
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I very much agree with the sentiment that the future of journalism is not set in stone. It will be up to the people who consume it to decide if they really want good investigative reports, for example, or stories that strive for some degree of objectivity. The prevalence of certain cable news shows and of shock-and-awe stories on most local news channels suggest that on the content end, the network heads have decided to make those decisions themselves.