Time, which is now one of the journalist√ïs greatest foes, will lose its power to define the news story. If deadlines are fixed as they are now by arbitrary distribution deadlines, they can force a rush to judgment that erodes the trustworthiness of the news product. But if deadlines are constant, one can devote to an enterprise news story the time it really takes. A news organization that is determined to establish its “brand” in the multichannel marketplace will not rush stories to publication but will allot what Washington Post editor Bob Woodward calls more ‘time against the problem’ to improve the product.
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:”Stories in the new digital media are archived so they can be accessed when consumers actually want to learn about these subjects; material omitted from the original story also can be packaged and sold. Major news archives have been available for years in library clip files, on microfilm, and in databases like LEXIS/NEXIS. But now they will be easy and inexpensive for the public to access from their homes, at a moment√ïs notice, especially if journalists package and resell them to accompany current news. The incentive is to reuse everything because the news hole has expanded beyond the current news staff’s capacity to fill it. Thus, time, which is now one of the journalist√ïs greatest foes, will lose its power to define the news story. If deadlines are fixed as they are now by arbitrary distribution deadlines, they can force a rush to judgment that erodes the trustworthiness of the news product. But if deadlines are constant, one can devote to an enterprise news story the time it really takes. A news organization that is determined to establish its ‘brand’ in the multichannel marketplace will not rush stories to publication but will allot what Washington Post editor Bob Woodward calls more ‘time against the problem’ to improve the product.”
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/tabloids5.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Little, Brandi W.