What Now? What Comes After Newspapers?

Going off of Colin's prompt, there are three things that need to be addressed in the wake of newspapers demise:

1. What do YOU see in [their] place?

2. What are YOUR content consumption habits, at that point?

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

I'll take them one at a time:

1. What do I see in [their] place?

Blogs, Social Networks, News Aggregators, Tech still TDB.

For starters, I get as much of my news from blogs today as I do from more traditional news outlets. In fact, anything cultural, I'll get from a variety of blogs that I've rounded up and read regularly. Film, Music, TV, etc. are all better covered by bloggers and internet only journalists than they are by any mainstream newspaper (NY Times Film section aside. AO, you're the man! But I actually think your internet-only material is better than some of your print stuff, brilliant!) The news is quicker and more personal (After art is best covered from a subjective opinion. There is nothing worse than objective art coverage). As film critics get the ax across the country, the blogosphere is filling with film writing that is really excellent: informative, insightful and passionate.

Social Networks already have cemented themselves as invaluable tools for news coverage. All you Twitter haters need look no further than the Iran Elections and the Mumbai terrorist attacks for the reason why Twitter must exist. At a time when, in Iran, the government had widespread censorship over what could be reported about the uprisings surrounding the elections, leaving, in the process, the mainstream press in the dark, Twitterers across the country became THE source for news. What followed was a tremendous amount of unfiltered, unedited information revealing the real truths behind what was happening. Combined with grainy, pixelated YouTube videos, these brave activists/citizen journalists risked their own lives to shed light on the ugly conditions of a country fighting to reclaim itself.

There is no reason to think that Twitter has seen it's peak or even, it's entire potential. This is a service that will continue to mature and evolve. The Twitter train is leaving the station and you can either choose to acknowledge its growing importance and get on board or get run over. It's not stopping once it's fully on its way. I'm not sure that Facebook will have the same importance as a news source. As the more innovative Twitter has grown in popularity and importance, Facebook has merely copied it. The new news feeds are directly modeled on Twitter's platform and as long as Facebook continues to focus on useless, time wasting apps like Mafia Wars and Social Interview rather than truly innovating as a worthy news platform, it'll stay as a nice way to stay in touch with friends but nothing else. I'm a fan of Facebook for what it does but it isn't Twitter and doesn't have the same level of excitement surrounding its potential.

News Aggregators have already established themselves as a vital and fun portion of the 'net. As newspapers bite the dust, they'll only continue to grow in importance. Rather than having to wade through pages of stories one isn't interested in (which may actually be a good thing), one can search for a single news item and get a range of coverage (which may actually be a better thing). No longer is someone forced to rely on just the Courant's (or AP's) coverage of an item. Now, you can see more coverage than anyone could possibly know what to deal with. If you're not looking for a single item, head to Google News' main page and you've got yourself the front page of a region-less, multi-sided newspaper. It'll take an adjustment for readers who like folding newsprint but it's not an impossible leap.

Finally, by 2014, who knows what'll be around? Let's take a look at five years ago. In 2004:

-Facebook was just being founded. Now, it's a widespread phenomenon that has 300 million users in 5 years.
-Digg was founded. Now it's one of the most popular social news networks on the planet.
-A small email service was launched. Gmail now has 146 million users despite being in "beta" for much of the five years.

That's just three services that are now synonymous with the larger internet. Impressive to say the least. Now, what comes in 2014? Who the hell knows and really, who the hell can guess? Was Twitter predicted in 2004? Certainly not by the just-launching Facebook, which had no newsfeed. Certainly not by a large portion of the Facebook audience who flipped their collective shit when the news feed was introduced (now, almost all of which, I'd be willing to bet, spend 90% of their Facebook time gleefully scrolling through their feed, while cursing the hand that fed them, Twitter).

My guess? Probably something along the lines of Google Wave, an even-more-instant-than-Twitter real-time-service that somehow gets news to millions in a blink of an eye. That'll actually be it's name: EvenMoreInstantThanTwitterRealTimeServiceThatImprovesOnTheIdeasOfGoogleWave. Google Wave users will hate it.

5 Potential Uses of Twitter

Here's my list of 5 potential uses of Twitter:

1. Crowd-Sourcing: A quick search for a hashtag or trending topic will give one a pretty good idea as to what the masses are saying about it. This was initially more difficult without the use of a client desktop application but since Twitter has implemented a viable search on their own site, this is a quick and easy process. Let's say I wanted to see what Eagles fans thought about Sunday Night Football. Search for "Iggles" and there you go.

2. News Source: One can get breaking news information quicker on Twitter than any place else on the 'net. Whether you choose to follow news organizations such as the NY Times or rely strictly on the idea of citizen journalism, a Twitter user can get to the point info fast and easy.

3. Blogging Platform: Tired of writing longer blog entries? Twitter alleviates that with it's 140 character restriction. When a Twitter user is efficient and up to date (Adam Schefter), you can get the information you want without having to sift through a longer blog entry. Twitter forces the user to boil down his/her post to the bare minimum, a blast of information without the (sometimes) needless opinion.

4. Keeping up with Friends: An offshoot of #3 and an intrusion on Facebook's (which has essentially adopted Twitter's format for their news feed) territory, one could use Twitter for what doubters hate Twitter for. If you want to tweet that you're sitting watching TV while eating Cheetos, have at it. Just don't expect anyone other than your friends to follow you.

5. Meeting New People: While Facebook is designed for keeping track of people you know, Twitter is much easier to find people with similar interests and seeing what they have to say. Utilize the excellent WeFollow and you can find Twitterers for just about any topic you want to learn about.

Journalists and Social Networking

While reading the Nieman Reports piece on the role of journalism in social networking, I was struck by the idea that the social networks are not mere tools that we now use, but they are the world in which we use additional tools. As more and more internet users turn to networks like Facebook and Twitter for their breaking news tidbits, these sites are quickly changing the game.

In the past, one would have to wait for the media source to digest and then spit back out the information. Even with so called "breaking news", TV and radio networks were forced to first turn inward and decide how exactly they should at least begin covering the story. This is not to suggest that they would have to understand the end point of their coverage, but at least the beginning with which to take the air with. However, with the social networks continuing their rise in power and popularity, they are, in a way, cutting out the middle man that was the major media outlets in the days of yore.

Nowadays, users can turn to their feeds and see instantaneous updates about a situation. Hell, even the major networks utilize Twitter as a source of information. Take the Iranian election protests earlier this year, or the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008. These were events that were largely being reported on by the participants, literally as the events were occuring, allowing the citizens of the world to have unfettered and unobstructed access to the events as they were unfolding. No longer were people forced to turn to the major corporate networks in order to gleam information. The trade off here was that the users (and the consumers of the news) were forced to understand and decide what to trust, on their own. Ultimately, however, that's what we trust our news organizations to do. This process just cuts out that middle man.

This is both an exciting and disconcerting notion. While in the right hands of responsible intelligent consumers of the news, this is a huge boost in access and power. No longer are we forced to listen to Reporter X drone on about an event that happened hours ago. Now, we're able to (hypothetically) hear from the person who started said event. That's the beauty of Twitter. Where Facebook is best (and most efficiently) used as a means of keeping in touch with people whom you know, Twitter doesn't necessarily provide that same service. Rather, Twitter allows you to follow people you've never met yet trust as a source of news (Hello, Bill Simmons!). It allows me to track down the participants in the controversies in Iran rather than having to hear Brian Williams tell me about those participants. Exciting stuff.

On the other hand, in the wrong hands (read: unintelligent and irresponsible news consumers), this leads to a dangerous means of spreading rumors. The situation with Michael Jackson, mentioned in the Nieman article, is just such an event. While many of the early people reporting his death turned out to be correct, this is the type of Tweeting that starts rumor riots. If one listens or follows a single feed, they will be misinformed (although one could also argue, fairly easily, that if one only watches/listens to a single news channel, they'll be just as misinformed). If one takes the time to broaden and listen to many feeds, Twitter opens a new realm of news coverage, one that ultimately leads to the question: Do we still need professional journalists or will citizen journalism emerge as the de facto means of receiving and reporting on news (I only half kid)?