The Future of News

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The Future of News

• Robert L. Stevenson

UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication
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Communication Revolution No. 1

• Invention of writing
• Results
• Communication across time and space
• Infinite accumulation of knowledge
• Flexible, expanding cultures
• Challenged authority of tribal leaders and
  guardians of culture

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Communication Revolution No. 2

• Gutenbergs invention of printing
• Results
• Cheap, fast reproduction of information
• News emerged quickly
• Modern society became possible languages,
  bureaucracy, democracy
• Traditional authority challenged

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Communication Revolution No. 3

• Convergence of technologies
• Computers
• Satellites
• Digitization
• Result is capacity to transmit unlimited
  quantities of information from any point on earth
  to any other point almost instantly

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Implications

• An end to national sovereignty?
• Near impossibility of any kind of regulation? Or
  total regulation?
• Information as new form of wealth and power
• Information-rich and information-poor
• Regulation of an information economy

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An information-driven world

• National control
• Maintenance of legal standards
• Taxation
• Protection of intellectual property
• A new form of Western (Anglo-American) global
  dominance?

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The global news system

• A global network of computers, constantly
  updating time-sensitive data bases
• Comprising
• A handful of Western information-based
  organizations operating globally
• Second-tier national and regional agencies
• A handful of elite national media

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The global news system

• Pumps massive quantities of information to local
  gatekeepers who allow a trickle into local media
• Is dominated by Anglo-American organizations
• Mixture of public and private
• Follows Anglo-American style of content and format

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The global news system

• News capital is probably London, not New York
• Information generated and distributed mostly in
  English
• Surprisingly well connected to local and
  non-English media

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The players

• Global wholesalers
• Mixed suppliers

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Global news diet and menu

• Global system pumps a flood of information into
  small local systems
• Tiny trickle get into most national and local
  media
• In many (most?) countries, international news is
  a rare (but not endangered) species

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A typical snapshot of the world

• One or two universal blockbuster stories, often
  violent
• One or two major events with national involvement
  or linkages
• A small but steady dose of business, sports,
  entertainment

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Influences on the world snapshot

• Global wholesalers and players set the agenda
• Characteristics of the system stationing of
  resources, economic, cultural ties
• Gatekeeper news values (proximity, prominence,
  deviance, disruption)
• U.S. as unique news superpower

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Alternative definitions of news

• News is a coherent (ideological?) interpretation
  of the world
• News is a non-partisan summary of events and
  useful data with a separate forum for opinions
• News is now something else

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The revolution in news

• News is data
• News is components
• News is live or on-demand
• News is multi-media
• News is personal
• News is interactive

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Re-valuing information

• Be traditional
• Give away the news, sell the olds
• Spread the costs
• Give it away and sell ads

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The downside of the future

• Commercial dominance
• Rise of extremism
• The digital divide

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Journalism in the future

• Summarize events
• Assemble elements of a complex event
• Separate the probably true from the obviously
  false
• Monitor powerful institutions
• Tell us what to think about