Interpreting the news and separating out the extraneous is pivotal to the profession. Therefore, dumping a load of facts into a bottomless database would do little to aid public discourse, inform the community or attract a new generation of readers.
Predictor: Rosen, Jay
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for American Journalism Review, Kate McKenna reports on how the newspaper industry plans to get involved in the age of computer networks, interviewing New York University professor Jay Rosen. McKenna writes:”New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen is wary of defining a newspaper’s role as an information factory. ‘It is a serious and sometimes fatal error to say that what journalists do is provide information,’ he says. ‘The essential tasks of journalists actually have a lot to do with reducing information.’ He points out that interpreting the news and separating out the extraneous is pivotal to the profession. Therefore, dumping a load of facts into a bottomless database would do little to aid public discourse, inform the community or attract a new generation of readers.”
Date of prediction: October 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Newspapers
Name of publication: American Journalism Review
Title, headline, chapter name: The Future is Now: Newspapers Are Overcoming Their Fears of Technology and Launching a Wide Array of Electronic Products
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Volume 15, Issue 8, Page 16
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney