Journalism - An Industry in Flux

It is obvious to everyone by now that the world of news and news media is changing rapidly and irrevocably. Digital media is providing new and different channels of distribution, new avenues for reader interaction, and even new types of content.

The industry was the focus of a panel discussion held last week in Toronto, which involved a number of experts from media companies, and some of the digital companies like Facebook. One of the discussions pointed to the advantages of having news comments placed through Facebook, rather than as anonymous comments on news sites. There was the thought that this might raise the level of the online discussions in traditional media sites. Anyone who has read some of the comments one sees in traditional media sites would relate to the need for finding some way to raise the level at least up to kindergarten level!

The advances in mobility were also discussed, with recognition that it is important and will become more so, but that the problem now is that there does not seem to be a good means of providing advertising content, which is necessary from the industry viewpoint.

A summary of the discussion is at this site.