The Future of News

This week in class, we discussed the future of media. To be honest, this is a pretty scary subject for me because everything is up in the air right now. All we can really do is guess. The New York Times recently cited a Cisco Systems study that predicts the media industry's revenue could do anything from shrink slightly to completely double by 2017.

Thanks for narrowing that down Cisco.

Sometimes things are changing so quickly that I feel a little bit like Marty McFly in Back to the Future: Part II...except I don't have a hover board.

Image retrieved from http://www.doblu.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/bt2tf1158.jpg

Also, Jaws 19 has not been released yet.

What we do know is that the old news world is gone. The digital revolution is not slowing down any time soon. Up until now, I think many organizations have been desperately trailing behind it. But to survive in the future, news organizations need to do more than chase the advancing technological changes in society. They need to start keeping pace with them. 

The best way to do this is to simply be adaptable. News organizations need to be more than willing to change. They need to completely embrace change. Yes, the future of media is riddled with problems. But the new age also offers many opportunities. Any media organization, not just the big ones, can aspire to a global audience now. The digital era is an empowering one. It's time to stop complaining and take advantage of it.