Predicting the future

Predicting the future

Ten years from now, what would the media landscape look like? How would you consume media at that time?

Ten years from today, the media landscape may look like a variation of the media landscape today. Although I believe that social media is here to stay, I believe traditional mediums like television and print editorials will be in little use in the future. Television content may shift to online websites completely and print editorials like magazines and newspapers may be found only online. For both convenience and environmental reasons, I believe all existing media will be transferred online. In ten years, generation X will be in the workforce and implementing their native online mediums while baby boomers' traditional mediums will be faded out. Hosting content on online websites is more economical than printing considering the cost to design, buying space, printing thousands of copies for circulation, paying the vendors to host your print materials, etc. Also, technology will have advanced even more to be more compatible to host a variety of formerly traditional mediums online.  

Ten years from now

Ten years from now, what would the media landscape look like? How would you consume media at that time?

While the circulation and readership of print media are likely to decrease and some newspapers may be shut down, most newspapers will remain major players in the media landscape. In an attempt to attract young consumers, online newspapers may display more non-public affairs, such as entertainment, at the expense of political and social topics. Also, hand watches will be used to consume content, mainly entertainment, but news as well. Facebook will remain dominant and function as the networked public affairs. Attempts of other companies to compete with this social networking site are likely to fail.

The Future

I think the future media landscape will be more of the same, just bigger. Many channels for information coming from a few main sources with plenty of misinformation thrown in thanks to the social and interactive nature of the internet. I'm not as interested in how we will consume media at that time as much as what media we will be consuming. The fewer gatekeepers we have in media and the more voracious the "i want it NOW" news cycle, the easier it is to get the wrong information and especially to signal-boost it. But maybe, in 10 years, our need to avoid anything that offends us will have created even smaller online communities where selective exposure becomes our own personal gatekeeper and the accuracy of the media is no longer as important as to whether we agree with it or not. Or whether it entertains us.

We'll still have newspapers, though. We'll still have TV news and the radio and all the things people think are going away. Maybe we've added something else. Maybe we all have google glass or cochlear implants that whisper the news directly into our brain. Maybe we have little screens on our shoes so we can send messages and still see where we are going.

2025: A Dystopic Media Landscape

Predictions are only as good at the data you have to work with, and even then they are only predictions. There are so many factors that will impact the media landscape in the next 10 years: mergers and acquisitions, audience preferences, political regime changes and new laws, the innovation of new technologies, and the list goes on.

The fact of the matter is, the way things are going right now, all media are increasingly and blatantly becoming marketplaces for consumers to meet advertisers. By 2025, I think there will be two very different Internet experiences. A completely free version of the web which comes with free hardware, but that constantly harasses people with advertisements. This will probably be marketed to low income people.

There will also be a highly premium version of the Internet that allows the elite to pay for content and not have to deal with advertisements (as much). 

Newspapers and even digital native news media outlets will be less relevant for news and information, as in the next 10 years people will grow increasingly tired of their hawking of advertisements. 

Instead, we'll go back to a model of advocacy journalism organizations producing important investigative stories. We're seeing this already happening with the rise of ProPublica, Marshall Project, and the Texas Tribune. Non-profits will begin commissioning their own investigative units as social issues become more intense. 

News media's incessant need for advertising profits will be its downfall, and will give rise to media outlets that educate people through well-thought out stories rather than an incompetent barrage of content that is great for profit but horrible for educating the public. 

future media landscape

Ten years from now, what would the media landscape look like? How would you consume media at that time?

People will have really pointy, sharp fingers. I'd feel much more comfortable reading digital books than now. 

Predicting the future

Ten years from now, what would the media landscape look like? How would you consume media at that time?

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