“Instant Information, Instant Gratification”

“Instant Information, Instant Gratification” With the constant changing landscape of today’s world, it is hard to accurately imagine what will come for humans in the future years. It goes without being said that technology, cars, education and forms of communication will be completely altered in even just a few years’ time. These changes are particularly relevant in regards to the ones in media and journalism. Many mediums of news sources will be out of style or seemingly obsolete in ten or fifteen years’ time. These changes are already seen in the dying down of print newspaper production and the rush to the Internet to receive and put out prominent information. As members of the journalism world, we must be able to follow these new advances and be fully prepared to hold our own when what we have known for years as the popular ways to receive and send information becomes completely wiped out, heading down a road of the unknown of the future of journalism as we know it. According to The Guardian, 166 print newspapers have vanished over the course of a two-year span, from 2008 to 2010. Though there are hundreds of newspapers and magazines in circulation, taking a 166 hit to the industry is quite a large one. The population of the United States is changing; gone are the days when sitting at the breakfast table, coffee in hand, with a newspaper sprawled out in front of you is valued. Most young children of this day and age will be lucky if they even see their parents flick through the news channels on the television, let alone take the time to sit and read a paper. This all stems from the notion that people in today’s world want information as quickly as possible with as little effort as they can exert. They also value concise information, so that the point gets across with reading as little as they possibly can. It may be because of a shortened attention span, or because of all the aspects of social media and networking our society has developed. According to the International News Media Association, the average attention span of adults is “2.8 seconds.” This amount of time also happens to be the same amount of seconds it takes to read a headline, or 140 characters in text, INMA stated. This seems to be a trend in our society and is the road media and journalism is heading down. I believe that this 2.8 attention span and capability to only hold a reader’s attention for 140 characters or less will be the downfall of print newspapers as we know them. I confidently state that I can see most major publications choosing to become strictly online ones in ten or fifteen years’ time. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism the Sate of the News Media 2012 study, 23% of American adults receive their news information on a digital device, including computers, laptops, smartphones and tablets. I firmly believe that number will have tripled looking ahead ten to fifteen years. People in this country are lazy and do not want to have to work to receive information about the world around them—most feel that it is a god given right for this information to be delivered to them as quickly as humanly possible in the easiest possible form. That being said, I think we will continue down this digital road. In ten years, I can see only the major publications, such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, still being in print, but in a vastly different form of a newspaper. I believe these papers will have less text and more pictures, as well as striking headlines with very minimal explanations. I feel that there will be more user input, as we all can see online when people comment on news stories, sharing their ideas and feelings about the post. The papers will become significantly lighter, needing fewer pages to get the information out there and the point across. They may even try using colored ink to catch more reader attention, as well as printing advertisements on the front page to rack up more revenue. I do not think that feature stories or columns will be printed in the daily papers anymore; I feel that the stories will be very concise and straightforward, something that is widely valued in this generation and was proven by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism study. I also believe that seeing Twitter handles under journalists’ stories will become a common aspect of print newspapers. Links to Facebook and phrases such as “read more about this on our website/social media page” will be listed in company with most major news stories. In fifteen years’ time, it can be safe to say that all the major newspapers will have thrown in the towel and completely convert to a strictly online presence. iPads and tablets, as well as every brand of smartphones in existence will cater to the “instant information, instant gratification entity” that we have become, according to Business Smartly, a blog on companies and businesses performing poorly. I do not find it difficult to believe that every smartphone or digital device will come synched with some sort of news outlet application installed on the home screen, sending push notifications to the user when something even remotely newsworthy happens in the world. I believe that the major publications will create deals with companies such as Apple and Microsoft to have these kinds of applications programmed on the devices before users even purchase them. These applications would allow the user to choose which kinds of alerts they would like to receive and what kind of news stories interest them. Information would come at users as it is found out, instead of having to wait for newspapers to print or posts to go live on websites. All of these stories and alerts will adhere to the “140 characters or less” model set up by Twitter, making it easy for readers to acknowledge, understand and move on, an inherit part of what will make up society as a whole in the year 2028. With all these changes underway, it must be stated that there will always be a desire and need for local news. People in neighbors, towns and small cities will always be invested in what is going on in their communities. According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research, 72% of Americans are deeply concerned and invested in following local news. 32% of local news “enthusiasts” said that if their local news publication was to stop printing, it would have a “major impact” on them personally, as well as on the community, according to this project. In ten years, I firmly believe that local newspapers will generally look exactly the same as they do currently, still reporting on high school sports, who won the local lottery and highlighting achievements of the members of the community. They may change a bit in format, adhering to new advances in print journalism, but they will still stay in the sacred form that locals tend to love so dearly. In fifteen years time, I do not think that many publications will have the reporters or staff necessary to cover all the events happening in the communities, so I believe they will do weekly round-ups about what is going on for the week and any newsworthy stories that may have taken place the week prior. I believe that they will only have the funding and manpower to publish a paper once or twice a week, and I think that they will come in the form of almost a newsletter instead of a traditional newspaper layout. Regardless of what shape or form local newspapers will take place, they will always be valuable and important to locals, never losing their impact or prominence with the changing times. The need for editors will always be highly important, regardless of how we receive our news and regardless of what year it may be. I honestly believe that editors in the future will have to work harder than ever before, making sure that each bit of information is in the most concise form possible and very easy to understand. Their jobs will be vastly more difficult in years to come; they will need to rely heavily on technology and keen editing skills. We are all well aware that technology can easily fail or that a website can be down for hours at a time. Future editors will most likely receive more complaints from the public than current editors do, especially when applications glitch or information was not received in a timely manner. I believe that editors will be more in demand in the job force than ever before once we make all these technological advances. They will also have to work around the clock instead of having set hours, since information will be sent out to readers as soon as it is received. Though it is difficult to imagine a world and time different from our current one, we are all aware that times are changing and will continue to do so. Advances in technology will do nothing but help the field of journalism, though it is sad to say that it is at the price of losing print newspapers. Broadcasting, online reporting and using social media outlets for news are the wave of the future. We must look forward to the changing landscape, and invest the time to learn how to function in such a world that is based on instant information, instant gratification.

Links: to Facebook and phrases such as “read more about this on our website/social media page” will be listed in company with most major news stories. In fifteen years’ time, it can be safe to say that all the major newspapers will have thrown in the towel and completely convert to a strictly online presence. iPads and tablets, as well as every brand of smartphones in existence will cater to the “instant information, instant gratification entity” that we have become, according to Business Smartly, a blog on companies and businesses performing poorly. I do not find it difficult to believe that every smartphone or digital device will come synched with some sort of news outlet application installed on the home screen, sending push notifications to the user when something even remotely newsworthy happens in the world. I believe that the major publications will create deals with companies such as Apple and Microsoft to have these kinds of applications programmed on the devices before users even purchase them. These applications would allow the user to choose which kinds of alerts they would like to receive and what kind of news stories interest them. Information would come at users as it is found out, instead of having to wait for newspapers to print or posts to go live on websites. All of these stories and alerts will adhere to the “140 characters or less” model set up by Twitter, making it easy for readers to acknowledge, understand and move on, an inherit part of what will make up society as a whole in the year 2028. With all these changes underway, it must be stated that there will always be a desire and need for local news. People in neighbors, towns and small cities will always be invested in what is going on in their communities. According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research, 72% of Americans are deeply concerned and invested in following local news. 32% of local news “enthusiasts” said that if their local news publication was to stop printing, it would have a “major impact” on them personally, as well as on the community, according to this project. In ten years, I firmly believe that local newspapers will generally look exactly the same as they do currently, still reporting on high school sports, who won the local lottery and highlighting achievements of the members of the community. They may change a bit in format, adhering to new advances in print journalism, but they will still stay in the sacred form that locals tend to love so dearly. In fifteen years time, I do not think that many publications will have the reporters or staff necessary to cover all the events happening in the communities, so I believe they will do weekly round-ups about what is going on for the week and any newsworthy stories that may have taken place the week prior. I believe that they will only have the funding and manpower to publish a paper once or twice a week, and I think that they will come in the form of almost a newsletter instead of a traditional newspaper layout. Regardless of what shape or form local newspapers will take place, they will always be valuable and important to locals, never losing their impact or prominence with the changing times. The need for editors will always be highly important, regardless of how we receive our news and regardless of what year it may be. I honestly believe that editors in the future will have to work harder than ever before, making sure that each bit of information is in the most concise form possible and very easy to understand. Their jobs will be vastly more difficult in years to come; they will need to rely heavily on technology and keen editing skills. We are all well aware that technology can easily fail or that a website can be down for hours at a time. Future editors will most likely receive more complaints from the public than current editors do, especially when applications glitch or information was not received in a timely manner. I believe that editors will be more in demand in the job force than ever before once we make all these technological advances. They will also have to work around the clock instead of having set hours, since information will be sent out to readers as soon as it is received. Though it is difficult to imagine a world and time different from our current one, we are all aware that times are changing and will continue to do so. Advances in technology will do nothing but help the field of journalism, though it is sad to say that it is at the price of losing print newspapers. Broadcasting, online reporting and using social media outlets for news are the wave of the future. We must look forward to the changing landscape, and invest the time to learn how to function in such a world that is based on instant information, instant gratification.