Media needs voice in new era
If you think technology has shaken up the news media — just wait, you have not seen anything yet.
If you think technology has shaken up the news media, just wait — you’ve seen nothing yet.
The next wave of disruption is likely to be even more profound, according to a study presented on Saturday to the Online News Association annual meeting in Washington.
News organisations that have struggled in the past two decades as readers went digital would soon need to adapt to artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and automated journalism and find ways to connect beyond the smartphone, the report said.
“Voice interface” would be a major challenge for media groups, said the report by Amy Webb, a New York University Stern School of Business faculty member and founder of the Future Today Institute.
The institute estimates consumers will use their voices for 50% of interactions with computers by 2023.
The report said: “Once we are speaking to our machines about the news, what does the business model for journalism look like?”
“News organisations are ceding this future ecosystem to outside corporations. They will lose the ability to provide anything but content.”
Webb said news organisations had done little experimentation with chat apps and voice skills, which might become key parts of the news ecosystem.
Because of this, she argued, AI posed “an existential threat to the future of journalism”.
“Journalism itself is not actively participating in building the AI ecosystem,” she wrote.
“We recommend crossindustry collaboration and experimentation on a grand scale, and we encourage leaders in journalism to organise quickly.”
The study identified 75 technology trends likely to affect journalism including drones, wearables, blockchain, 360degree video, virtual reality and real-time fact-checking.
Some new technologies — the ability to interpret visual data, develop algorithms to write or interpret news, and collect and analyse data — would enable journalists “to do richer, deeper reporting, fact-checking and editing”, the report said.
These technologies “will give journalists superpowers, if they have the training”.