As technology enables people to fulfill the “desire for more information, the desire to ask questions, to argue a little bit,” on a real-time basis, the public will acquire a greater voice in shaping the news business, Dennis predicts. The public’s influence will increase as the media diversify and news executives look for market niches that serve smaller audiences with specific interests, he says. What will this do to the traditional ratings system, which provided such an important rationale for television’s coverage of the Simpson case? Interactive technology could enable the news business to move “beyond ratings,” Dennis says. The public’s voice could become so strong that instead of asking people what they think about a program that they are watching today, the news executives might be more interested in asking the public what events it would like to see tomorrow.
Predictor: Dennis, Everette
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for American Journalism Review, Janet Sharkey, a professional writer and journalism teacher, takes a look at journalism and the Internet, quoting Everett E. Dennis of the Freedom Forum. She writes:”As technological advances and the information superhighway broaden the public’s choices about where to go for information, analysts predict that news will become narrowly focused to appeal to smaller audiences with specific interests … Everette E. Dennis, [executive director of the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center] says the public’s eagerness to participate in what he calls the ‘primitive beginnings of interactivity’ in the [O.J. Simpson murder] case foreshadows ‘all kinds of potential changes in news decision making.’ As technology enables people to fulfill the ‘desire for more information, the desire to ask questions, to argue a little bit,’ on a real-time basis, the public will acquire a greater voice in shaping the news business, Dennis predicts. The public’s influence will increase as the media diversify and news executives look for market niches that serve smaller audiences with specific interests, he says. What will this do to the traditional ratings system, which provided such an important rationale for television’s coverage of the Simpson case? Interactive technology could enable the news business to move ‘beyond ratings,’ Dennis says. The public’s voice could become so strong that instead of asking people what they think about a program that they are watching today, the news executives might be more interested in asking the public what events it would like to see tomorrow. Executives then could use the response to decide whether to carry an event live, on a delayed basis, or not at all.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Journalism/Media
Name of publication: American Journalism Review
Title, headline, chapter name: Judgment Calls: The Media’s O.J. Obsession
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://journalism.arizona.edu/faculty/Sharkey/pub.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney