mediagiraffe

What wil journalism be like in 10 years? Post your thoughts

At the Online News Association convention in New York in the last week of October, reporter Christen DeProto asked a sampling of attendees: "What will journalism be like in 10 years."  Below, with apologies to ONA and DeProto for lifting the answers,  (ORIGINAL LINK) is what DeProto was told. Please add your answer as a comment:

“I’ve been in the online world for nine years and the level of cooperation between the print world and online world has grown exponentially. It’s hard to envision where we will be technologically in 10 years. It’s definitely in our best interest for our focus to be on the Web”
— Steve Fox, senior news editor, washingtonpost.com

“I think that in 10 years you are not going to see journalists behind desks. They will be off running around the world finding great stories that you don’t see these days.”
— Naka Nathaniel, nyimes.com

“It’s clear that the geography of print journalism is shrinking. The Web will allow us to be smarter about content because it is making it easier to customize content to different readers. The Web will solve distribution issues.”
— Matthew Rothenberg, Ziff Davis

“Journalism will be very different in 10 years because use is becoming a commodity and the Web creates the need for media outlets to differentiate information in new ways.”
— Arne Krumsvik, Oslo University College, Research Fellow

“I think that the principles of journalism will stay the same, but distribution will change.”
— Sophie Brendel, Reuters

“I think it will depend more on driven individual reporters. The Web is fragmenting the larger journalism structure that has shaped how it has been in the past. Also there will be more variety of different points of view.”
— David Ritsher, Frontline World PBS

“It will change the way different publications interact with one another, they will become more open to sharing resources.”
— Josh Cohen, Reuters

Chicago federal judge says media polarization may accelerate -- but will it?

The ease with which Internet and other new technology allows anyone to be come a "publisher" is causing media to become more polarized, according to  a federal appeals court judge who is himself a recreational "blogger" on topics which don't come before his court. Judge Richard A. Posner of the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago writes in the July 31, 2005 edition of The New York Times Book Review.

The link, which requires registration, is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/books/review/31POSNER.html?

Already, Posner's views are being considered in the blogging community. Here's a link to a post by Robert Cauthorn, former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle's web site: http://www.corante.com/rebuildingmedia/archives/2005/07/31/posner_on_media_polarization.php

And here's a post by Jack Shafer, media credit at large for Slate. Schafer things Posner's conclusion is wrong:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2123764/

Craig's List founder: Understanding the role of journalism to "fight scams"

For inspiration, read excerpts of Craig Newmark's appearance at the University of California a couple of weeks ago. Newmark is the founder of Craig's List. It's exciting that a tech entrepreneur sees the pain in the news industry, understands that a fundamental purpose of journalism is to "fight scams", and is prepared to put some money and effort into helping with the fight. Download newmark_knight_USC-berkley-03-22-05.pdf

Tim Porter's six things newspapers need to do to stay relevant

A former San Franciso Examiner editor who is now engaged in a long-term project with Knight Foundation money to study America's newsrooms has suggested to the American Society of Newspaper Editors six things that newspapers must do to remain relevant.  Read his post: HERE.

A challenge: Post your ideas

So far in 2005, an increasing number of U.S. journalism leaders -- especially in the newspaper business -- are expressing alarm about how the craft will be supported in an era of citizen journalism, blogs and plunging print readership. This site can serve as a reference point for ideas about how to tackle what many see as looming crisis for democracy. Lots of food for thought can be found by downloading a 50-megabyte MP3 file from the American Press Institute's Digital Edge site:

http://www.mediacenter.org/webcast/march/2005/?FLASH7=1

DIRECT LINK TO MP3 download:

http://www.mediacenter.org/video/flash/MC_WEBCAST_030905.mp3

And: http://pjnet.org/weblogs/pjnettoday/archives/000607.html

Please post your own links to analysis and thinking on this subject. Thanks.