Internet and Newspapers (I)

At the end of the Industrial Revolution, compulsory education led to the rise of the news industry, and familial businesses developed into large companies. Today, changes in science and technology, culture, and the economy have made people begin to rethink the functions of the media and journalism.
Although the strong growth of the economy has brought about high profits, the readership of the newspaper is slowly declining. As cable television began to compete for various special audiences, radio and television ratings also fell. Some people think that the Internet will rejuvenate urban society. Some people think that it is just a hotbed of rumors and pornography. People do not know what the future economic model of the Internet media is, nor does it know the long-term impact it has on society.
Findings about futurists At the annual meeting of the "Future World Society", "21st Century Journalism" has become the topic of discussion. Futurists made their own predictions about the 2021 news media.
The survey found that while most futurists expect great technological changes in the journalism industry, they firmly believe that the basic values ​​of the journalism industry will continue to be maintained. 82% of the respondents believe that the news industry in 2021 will be very different from the current one, but the change is mainly reflected in the content delivery and diversity of choice. Ninety-four percent of respondents believe that news reports can be customized and delivered via multimedia channels at any time. Fifty-five percent of respondents believe that news and information will be transmitted electronically through wireless devices, and media using newsprint will be few.
Most people think that there is little change in the guidelines and roles of journalism:
- 77% of the respondents believe that people will continue to pay attention to the daily news, even if it does not directly affect them.
- 62% of respondents did not believe that software will completely replace the role of labor in the collection and dissemination of news.
- 57% of respondents suspect that "equivalence" news media among ordinary citizens can replace the intermediary status of professional reporters.
- Although one-third of respondents believe that subjective news will dominate, there are still 51% of respondents believe that the objective and balance of news is still the mainstream of the future.
The influence of companies on the integrity of journalists has caused great controversy. 40% of the respondents believe that credibility issues will make media companies play more roles in transmission, and news gathering will be done by independent producers. 48% of respondents expressed opposition to this, and 13% did not determine the impact of the company on the future of the media.
Some futurists express their opinions in addition to making choices.
-- There has been a clear distinction between "news" and "entertainment", and readers can distinguish between the two.
- Ordinary people will make 50% of "peer-to-peer" news, and will seek professional help for those large-scale or serious problems.
- News will be globalized and multimedia. News interpretation and "news behind the news" will have enough room for development. There will be a lot of junk news. The press industry will need methods for classification, synthesis, and understanding.
- Many news exports have become a means of propaganda, which will become a major issue for American democracy.
- The public may become more and more indifferent. But people's propaganda, nonsense, and tediousness of news will be unbearable, and they will eventually fight back on the quality of news.
The development prospects of the news industry are difficult to predict. Toure, editor of USA Today, believes that the development prospects of the media industry are both good and bad.
If you develop well:
- TV and the Internet will be unified into truly interactive news reports. The viewer can choose which news to read, and check the background information (history, explanatory pictures, statistics of sports competitions, etc.).
- The cable television network will use its rich news resources. They can recognize that they don’t want to compete for details and instead provide global coverage and produce classic series like CNN’s “Cold War”.
- The main newspapers focused on analysis, close-ups, etc., aligned with TV/Internet, and provided in-depth coverage by TV/Internet. The newspaper became a condensed version of the website, offering selected news and sports reports, plus analysis and close-ups. (To be continued)