December 23, 2008

Whither the news?

Many people raise the question of where we will get information as newspapers and other mainstream media fold. When newspapers finally cease to exist, we will still get news.

I can think of three good sources already.

(1) Media releases and other information provided by corporations, institutions, political parties and lobby groups. Of course, this will be biased, but no more so than the existing media. As it is, much 'journalism' consists of transcribing these sources anyway.

(2) Citizen reporting. With mobile phones becoming ubiquitous, capable of taking photos and even sending video streams in real time, it is increasingly likely that someone will be present at a breaking news event, recording it on the spot.

(3) Interested amateurs -- bloggers with a day job who are enthusiastic enough to pursue a story and analyse the details. We have quite a few good ones already.

I think that with the demise of the mainstream media, we will only get more and better news.

Posted by: Evil Pundit at 10:56 PM | Comments (472) | Add Comment
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