The new technologies offer journalists not only the potential perils of competition and scrutiny but also the potential benefits of an expanded role: connecting citizens to information and to each other. To succeed, journalists cannot connect simply for the sake of connecting; they will have to deliver something of additional value to the customer.
Predictor: Hume, Ellen
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 research paper titled “Tabloids, Radio and the Future of News,” Ellen Hume of the Annenberg Washington Program writes:”[American audiences] will want a quick, efficient way to obtain precisely what they are looking for, whether it√ïs a trustworthy overview of the world√ïs events, a copy of Julia Child√ïs lemon mousse recipe, or a conversation with a fellow basset hound breeder. As media analyst Denise Caruso explains it, ‘The message of this new medium is “I want what I want and nothing more.”‘ In the MIT Media Lab√ïs version of the future, people will customize their computer news ‘guide’ once, and then the day-to-day work will be done automatically. This robot will go out and get the news – not the news that a professional journalist would choose, but the specific kinds of topics that the consumer says she wants. Journalists, if they√ïre smart, will offer continual information guidance that obviates the need for such robots. To do this, they may not have to be as entertaining or as ideological as Rush [Limbaugh’s] reports, but they will have to be more accurate, more relevant, and more attuned to their audiences than most are today. The new technologies offer journalists not only the potential perils of competition and scrutiny but also the potential benefits of an expanded role: connecting citizens to information and to each other. To succeed, journalists cannot connect simply for the sake of connecting; they will have to deliver something of additional value to the customer.”
Biography:Ellen Hume wrote “Tabloids, Talk Radio and the Future of News: Technology’s Impact on Journalism” as an Annenberg Senior Fellow at Northwestern University in 1995. She had previously served as executive director of the Joan Shorenstein Barone Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her work analyzed how media, politics and government interact. She was a White House correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, served as National Reporter for the Los Angeles Times and also worked at the Detroit Free Press. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Journalism/Media
Name of publication: Tabloids, Talk Radio and the Future of News
Title, headline, chapter name: How New Technologies Are Changing the News
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ellenhume.org/articles/tabloids3.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Little, Brandi W.