The value of the time-sensitive scoop is lost in the constant news marketplace, except in financial and some other specialty markets. Even though more and more news stations “burn their brand” into each video frame to mark their scoops, the news consumer rarely remembers who had a news item first as she surfs through scores of channels.
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:”More significantly, the hot ‘scoop’ loses its commercial value in [the new-media] environment. Scoops are prized by reporters, who rate each other on who gets the news first. However, the value of the time-sensitive scoop is lost in the constant news marketplace, except in financial and some other specialty markets. Even though more and more news stations ‘burn their brand’ into each video frame to mark their scoops, the news consumer rarely remembers who had a news item first as she surfs through scores of channels. Furthermore, if the news truly is a major breakthrough, it will be picked up in nanoseconds and carried by hundreds of other news sources.”
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.