Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!ukma!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!milano!titan!janssen@titan.sw.mcc.com
From: janssen@titan.sw.mcc.com (Bill Janssen)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Future of news reporting (Was CBS)
Message-ID: <1559@titan.sw.mcc.com>
Date: 10 Nov 88 06:20:55 GMT
References: <40000004@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: janssen@titan.sw.mcc.com
Organization: MCC Software Technology
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The CBS thing sounds like a pretty typical network news story,
slanted any way that fits to give it a little pizazz.  (Look at the
ratings on "60 Minutes"...)

But what about the future of news reporting?  Following the ARPANET
worm this week has been extremely interesting from a news-gathering
standpoint.  The stories are submitted by principals and are only
hours old (in RISKS).  As the future becomes more deeply netted, in
all kinds of businesses, on CompuServe and GEnie and Usenet and BIX
and so on, perhaps news stories will be submitted to bulletin boards
by people on the scene at the time.  Personal editing programs may
become as normal as current news-reader programs are, to arrange one's
own personal newspaper or (why not video?) TV news each day from a
multiplicity of news sources.  By, say, 1998?

Anyone know if the MIT Media Lab is still running their Personal
Newspaper (name?).

Of course, this (if true) means that network news will continue to
worsen, turning more and more into entertainment to attract an
audience share.  This in turn will mean that the part of the populace
that is not "on-line" will receive increasingly inaccurate information
(though things like "USA Today -- the TV SHOW!" make me wonder if that
hasn't already reached a nadir...)

Bill