Change: the only certain thing

As recently as three years ago, Chris Anderson, the Editor-in-Chief of technology magazine Wired, told a reporter from the New York Observer that even by 2018, the print magazine would remain the primary way in which readers would consume the magazine. Fast forward a couple of years and the iPad and other tablets have introduced a completely new ball to the game and in the process, transformed the habits of readers of Wired and many other print publications.

The fact that Anderson, who is immersed in technology, did not foresee the change that the tablet would bring to publishing is not a failing on his behalf, rather it is illustrative of the speed at which the digital world is morphing from one thing to the next, changing the media (and many other industries) as it does so.

Traditionally, in a time before the Internet, the media carried with it certain connotations – heritage, influence, respect, a sense of knowledge and credibility. Similarly journalists were regarded as the sole guardians of news and information, finely crafting and delivering it to grateful readers and viewers, who would passively consume it with no mechanism through which to agree or otherwise.

And then a set of tools and applications were developed, collectively known as Web 2.0, which would change the face of the Internet, and with it the media, beyond all recognition. Broadly speaking the new tools affected the media in three main ways: increased competition, speed and expectation.

Where previously they were the gatekeepers of information, suddenly newspapers and broadcasters were in competition with ‘amateur’ bloggers, who set up sites for free and started writing, often prolifically, about a mass of different topics. Some of them gained significant numbers of followers. This increased competition led to huge pressure on journalists to create content in greater quantity, quality and with greater speed, and to master skills such as writing search engine friendly copy. The explosion in competition also affected the bottom line, eating into advertising revenues and lending greater urgency to the need to win back readers.

Next came Twitter and with it the notion of real-time. Twitter quickly became a key platform through which news broke. From the Hudson River aeroplane crash to the Mumbai bombings and the London riots, traditional media now not only had more channels to compete with, it had to try and speed up. Articles predicting the demise of traditional media saturated the Internet, purely because it would never ‘beat’ Twitter at breaking big news stories. But now the smoke has cleared and it is apparent that not everything is about speed: fast is good, but the fastest is not always the best. Many parts of the mainstream media continue to champion quality content and indeed the background research, context and depth that professional journalists can add to a story continue to have tremendous value.

But overall, the most important change ushered in by Web 2.0 is the way it has altered our expectations. No longer will people passively consume news stories; they expect to be actively involved, by blogging, commenting and sharing, even shaping stories before they become news. When the Daily Mail enabled comments on its website (it was the first newspaper to do so), it was apparently believed that it would never catch on. Now detractors argue hype is occasionally the sole motivation for journalists; lots of comments, equals lots of traffic, equals more advertising revenue.

For those in the arts world, this aspect of the new Internet is arguably the most important, as the rise of the amateur critic adds yet another layer of complexity for journalists, consumers and PRs. Matt Trueman from the Guardian summed it up when he said, “for better or worse – everyone’s a critic.”

Despite the transformation that has taken place over the last decade, do not expect it to slow down any time soon. The only thing that is certain is more change. And despite the scale of the changes brought about by the new digital world, they are succinctly summarised in another, now infamous, short quote from an American college student who took part in a key study on the use of Internet technology by the younger generation: “If the news is that important, it will find me.”