This Is Going To Be The Future Of News (And I Hope The Future Of This Blog)

Photo from Meme Guy

AFP: Future of news: bracing for next wave of technology

Washington (AFP) - If you think technology has shaken up the news media -- just wait, you haven't seen anything yet.

The next wave of disruption is likely to be even more profound, according to a study presented Saturday to the Online News Association annual meeting in Washington.

News organizations which have struggled in the past two decades as readers moved online and to mobile devices will soon need to adapt to artificial intelligence, augmented reality and automated journalism and find ways to connect beyond the smartphone, the report said.

"Voice interface" will be one of the big challenges for media organizations, 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 that 50 percent of interactions that consumers have with computers will be using their voices by 2023.

"Once we are speaking to our machines about the news, what does the business model for journalism look like?" the report said.

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WNU Editor: I was struck when I read this article this afternoon because it outlines how future developments will impact this blog in the near future .... a future that I am well aware of. This past summer I have been looking at ways to use new technologies to enhance the experience that readers of this blog can have when they are browsing the stories that are posted on WNU. This includes using video to highlight stories and analysis (a short daily video summarising what I think is important and why), a program to specifically collect news and compile it for posting in the matter that Google News does in the event that the reader wants more information (but using specified sources while respecting copyright laws), and wondering how to incorporate "voice interface", and who will be the first to present such a platform to users like me. The way we obtain and read the news is changing .... and yes .... video and AI platforms feeding the info and commentary that we want (and what we prioritise) is the future. A future that from my vantage point and from I am reading .... is probably only a few years away.

Is This How Western Civilisation Will Collapse?

Rachel Nuwer, BBC: How Western civilisation could collapse

Some possible precipitating factors are already in place. How the West reacts to them will determine the world’s future, says Rachel Nuwer.

The political economist Benjamin Friedman once compared modern Western society to a stable bicycle whose wheels are kept spinning by economic growth. Should that forward-propelling motion slow or cease, the pillars that define our society – democracy, individual liberties, social tolerance and more – would begin to teeter. Our world would become an increasingly ugly place, one defined by a scramble over limited resources and a rejection of anyone outside of our immediate group. Should we find no way to get the wheels back in motion, we’d eventually face total societal collapse.

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