Multimedia and beyond

The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.

—William Gibson, quoted in The Economist, December 4, 2003

Who’s William Gibson?

Cardiff tutor and all round digital hound Glyn Mottershead discussed the digital revolution surrounding us now, and began with the quote above.

I use the quote as a reason to struggle on despite the fact that my digital arthritis has led to a little moat of empty spaces around me in the newsroom for fear of being plagued with my whimpering. But if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.

In fact  the lecture was full of exciting metaphors for this digital revolution. Some say it is an evolution, but things have happened so fast, and disruptive innovation is so strong a tool, and there is such a vivid sense of uncertainty about the future that this smells like the storming of a Bastille full of tightly zipped up pockets of information and not the steady rise of a chimpanzee. If you claim to know the way forward you’re deluded. Who would have ever thought the pigs would do what they did in Animal farm. For sure it will not be what we imagine.

Sorry to go dark on you there.

Glyn quoted Alison Gow, executive editor, digital of the Liverpool Echo and Post making the point that online journalism gives us the opportunity to be a real pioneer in the art of story telling, audience engagement and new ways of sourcing, sharing and developing information. This is exciting and perhaps the nub of how to view all things revolutionary, not focus too much on the revolution but on the equal distribution of the useful tools that are exploding around us.

And now the utility belt metaphor!  Journalists can pull out many, many more tools from their professional belts then . Technology is a sort of creative currency, whether it be in sourcing from twitter or producing a page using quark or contacting leading experts on the latest invention. Journalists can give sense to and make sense out of the eternal frictions between the things as they are.

If journalism is about channeling a passion for people and communication into something  more useful than having the balls to start a conversation over the urinals, then we should all be very excited about how communication replace old power structures.

Is traditional media just plain antisocial?

Is the future going to be based on User Generated Content and citizen journalism? The BBC has a team who constantly filter stuff being sent to them.

The power of the internet is undeniable when we look at the Iran elections of last year when the Iranian government cut off internet access. The classic gatekeepers, the controllers of the flow of information are nonetheless dropping like flies, and information is no longer a scarce resource.

Perhaps the question to ask is how can journalists distinguish themselves?

Newspapers: the ultimate gadget

I love this ad. I found it on www.paidcontent.org. Really interesting site that discusses the future of the media.

But it seems a little soft in comparison to this next video which Arianna Huffington shone light on in her speech at a newspaper conference in Washington addressing the question “How will journalism survive the internet age?” If it whets your palate, check out paidcontent.org for more great roundups.

But in my opinion the future of good journalism will not depend on whether old forms of media survive or not. It will depend on whether those in the trade are willing to stand amid the spits and shouts extracting facts, aware of their commitment to verification, accuracy, authenticity, regulation, and readiness for open, transparent communication with their audiences despite market pressures. This is not a new challenge.

Could the unprecedented power of the digital revolution, eventually, untie this awareness? Perhaps yes. Good journalism needs time, support and money and these are in short supply. So far there are no successful means of producing profits from online newspaper publications, and job cuts in media organisations means that many journalists do not have the time to for sustained journalistic inquiry. As a profession, journalism could die out.

But if it does not, journalists will have to defend their professional values to avoid being consumed by online communications. And if this happens, the prognosis of what will remain is, in my opinion, very good. Even those at the heart of the money-making media giants are showing signs that good journalism must be protected.

The-son-in law of Rupert Murdoch, Matthew Freud, recently spoke to the New York Times about the despicable journalistic standards upheld by the Fox News Channel boss, Roger Alies. He said: “I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Alies’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corp, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”

Fear not! We shall remain!