Sunday, November 29, 2009

My assignment and thought experiment for you

Watch the scary 2014 video again. Then imagine a similar not-too-distant future. The NY Times, as we know it, is gone. So is the Courant. So are some other old semi-reliable big media models.

What do YOU see in its place?

What are YOUR content consumption habits, at that point?

What role do you see yourself playing, possibly even as a content creator?

(Support your ideas with links whenever possible.)

Things to ponder.

1. the hot new term is mutualization. What does it mean? What role would it play in your vision?
Here Shirky talks about using the same idea to save local book stores. (Even Dan would be in favor of that!) Note his use of the term "third place" to describe a type of environment. One incredible visionary described, earlier this year, how that idea of a space or place could be applied to news.

2. In the eDemocracy model, we almost do without journalists. New tools are added almost every day. You could "know" almost anything you wanted to know, but then what would you do? (I'm asking!)

3. Another option is that linked causes would create the journalism they want. Nonprofits with mutual interests -- maybe even mutual interest not immediately evident -- could band together to create media. But then who consumes the media? What are the other questions that crop up and how do you answer those?

I've signed on as a paid advisor to the yearlong project, which will happen
largely virtually. The idea is that the alternative, progressive nonprofits —
the National Wildlife Federation, National Civic League, Freespeech.tv, Mother
Jones and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy — will assign point
people to work with producers selected by San Francisco State's Renaissance
Journalism Center.

4. Another argument you could make is that journalism of all kinds will take a back seat to PR and advertising, that those sectors have been faster to master. In which case, news platforms like Foursquare might take over and make where you go, what you buy, what you like the main story of interest to you. This guy, for instance, loves FourSquare, but I don't think he's worried about the future of journalism.
1. It’s a geolocation service that you use on your Smart Phone (I use it on my
iPhone and on my Droid). It competes with a raft of services like Britekite,
Google Latitude, Gowalla, and others.2. It’s a game. You check in where you are
and it gives you points and prizes.3. It enhances your experience in each
location. Check in at the Half Moon Bay Ritz and you’ll see tons of “tips” that
people have left for you. Francine Hardaway, for instance, tells you where the
best dog beach is. I tell you how to save $40 on smores. Other people tell you
that Tres Amigos is the best Mexican place nearby, etc.4. It’s an advertising
platform that enables local businesses to give you offers based on where you
check in. Check in at the San Francisco Apple Store, for instance, and the
Marriott across the street could offer you $5 off of a cocktail to get you to
cross the street and come over.


Oh, wait, maybe he does care. I love this post, where he says the little things make you smarter. And he argues that the little things are left out of a thing like memeorandum, which I admit to using pretty addictively. Ah, mememorandum. We never did get to discuss that. Note how other journalists now use it as a way to measure how widespread a meme is.

2 comments:

Matt Dwyer said...

Here is the report that the mutualization article was responding to:

http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php

"Mutualization" reminds me of a process some Connecticut banks went through a few years ago: "Demutualization," selling stock, instead of being owned by the depositors. The change gave bank executives big bonuses when the stock was sold.

aldon @ orient lodge said...

I look forward to joining the discussion this evening. I've read through some of the stuff here and I pulled together some of my thoughts in a blog post I just put up.

#trinblogwar Captain Futurist and the Innovators.

Note: This provides some of the underlying framework for my thinking and I hope and expect that we'll have a wild wide ranging discussion using this as a launch pad, and heading, well, who knows where.