Journalism in 2015

May 16, 2010 - 4:00 PM

To consider the "media landscape" in five years is quite the challenge. Sometimes I fantasize about the new technologies that we will have available to us in the near future and I am always in awe of the likelihood of these technologies feeling the grip of the human hand.

It is probably fair to say that the future of journalism is dependent on the future of our technologies. Who would have thought that the news would be where it is today if they considered it ten years ago?
I fully expect for telephone conversations to become hand-held Skype conversations within the next five years, and of course the internet will become accessible through a blanket of WiFi that will cover the world. With everything at our fingertips at all times, news will become even less appealing than it is now.

I would say that, currently, news is unappealing because of the presence of online content producers. So many people are "reporting" or publishing content on the Web that it clogs the news sphere with content that lacks credibility. In addition, the generation that I grew up in is less interested in news than any generation that went before it. I might credit this to an increased tendency to immediate gratification. It takes longer to read an article than the average post-adolescent wants to spend on just about any activity-let alone one that for the most part, doesn't have anything to do with fashion, video games, sports, or social media. The combination of too much information and not enough interest leaves the future of journalism in a lackluster state.

As far as news companies go, I would bet that we will have fewer, but bigger news media. I would say that the New York Times will be perhaps the only national news source, and it will only be available online. Along with that, there may be a few regional papers and one large worldwide news source (probably the Associated Press), but overall, the number of news sources will be greatly lessened.
I suspect that people will pay for cheap yearly subscriptions to access the news sites, or the sites will become a public organization funded by taxes.

But then again, I do not claim to have ESP. I am not tuned-in to the progress of technologies, nor am I one of the creative minds that will be trimming the lawns on the "media landscape." I hope to be a hedge or a fountain placed in an integral setting, helping journalism to flow smoothly and provide information to its audience (which we should probably no longer refer to as readership) no matter what year it is or what technology is used.

This blog was inspired by a prompt given at a class discussion with Andrew Revkin, environmental reporter for the New York Times and recent hire at Pace University.