Building on a conversation in the comments of a previous post regarding journalists and blogs….here is a look at the possible future of media. In the blogosphere this is a bit of old news, but since most of the students are new to blogging, they may have missed this from 2004.
EPIC is a presentation produced by Robin Sloan of the Poynter Institute. The premise is that the video was made in 2014 and is a look back at the previous 10 years. The video is about 8 minutes, but well worth the time.
A good friend of mine (and longtime journalist) was at the Poynter session when the video was first shown. After the presentation, the journalists broke into small workgroups to discuss what could be done to prevent this. The consensus? There is nothing that could be done, the best they could hope for was to retool their thinking to ‘join forces’ with this new media. Try to form a symbiotic rather than adversarial partnership.
As a side note, when you visit the site you will see there are a number of mirrors hosting the video. For a while I hosted a copy, but the traffic loads were incredible. We had ten’s of thousands of people viewing it. Finally my web hosting provider said, “Enough”
11 comments
1/27/2005 at 11:09 am
Trackback from NevOn - EPIC: The age of participatory communication
1/26/2005 at 5:36 pm
Allison_p_c
WOW! That is really scary to think about. The thing that caught my attention the most was that EPIC would go against everything, and a subscriber would not know if they were being told the truth or not. Did I follow that right?
Do you really think that there is nothing we can do? It seems as if journalists and everyone who works in the media industry has to atleast fight it. But then again, if journalists don’t believe we can do anything, that doesn’t give us much hope.
1/26/2005 at 7:00 pm
Nicole
This is an amazing video. Thanks so much for sharing it! I’ve been showing it to all my computer-savvy friends, and they too find it fascinating. It is so exciting - yet frightening - to think about such a world. And for that to happen in nine years? This is the kind of thing you think about happening right before the end of the world. Right? =)
1/26/2005 at 7:00 pm
Nicole
This is an amazing video. Thanks so much for sharing it! I’ve been showing it to all my computer-savvy friends, and they too find it fascinating. It is so exciting - yet frightening - to think about such a world. And for that to happen in nine years? This is the kind of thing you think about happening right before the end of the world. Right? =)
1/26/2005 at 9:30 pm
Helon B
As I wathced the video of the EPIC presentation I realized how much technology had advanced in the past seven years. It was an interesting video and also scary to think about what the future of media will be like. I started thinking about how we are accustomed to these advances because it seems like there is something new everyday. I think that people will realize how they and the media will be affected by showing what could happen if technology keeps growing and creating new media outlets. By showing nine years into the future it is more effective than if we experienced these changes gradually. I hope that journalists can find a way to keep news stories credible and reliable.
1/27/2005 at 5:30 pm
Sara M
This video is incredible. To think that is where technology could be in less than 10 years is almost inconceivable. While watching the movie, I kept thinking that technology has truly come a long way in the past few years. It is scary to think about so many news stories being unreliable and untrue in the foreseeable future. And I really hate to think of the New York Times being available only to the elite and elderly. That is just sad! But this was a very intriguing video and I am glad I got a chance to see it.
1/27/2005 at 5:32 pm
Claire
This video really brings the fast-paced technology we are continually observing into the spotlight. We have witnessed many of these changes in the last few years, but it makes you really think about the changes we calmly observe and don’t really put all that much thought into. Do you really think that there is nothing we can do to prevent this? As a young person, this video really alerts me to the potential future we may face due to advances in technology.
1/28/2005 at 12:21 pm
Elisabeth H
Wow! The thing that is so amazing about the video is that it isn’t that far fetched. I mean that could become a reality. At some point this is going to be something that we really have to deal with, whether it be the year 2014 or not. I think that we should go ahead and prepare for something like this by, like what they decided at the Poynter session, joining forces. Think about how this would completely change the way we live. It is a scary thought!
1/28/2005 at 3:45 pm
Karen
After watching the video in class, I’ll admit I was frightened. All we hear today is how technology is our future, but when we actually stop to think about what kind of future that is…it’s scary. The EPIC video definitely put things into perspective. Everything is not that far from reality–it all could happen very soon. Could it really be a bad thing though? Environmentalists would appreciate the conserving of paper. Maybe they wouldnâ??t have as much to complain about! (I love trees too. Sorry if I offend anyone who hugs them)
1/30/2005 at 8:59 pm
Katie Smith
I found this video to be fasinating. The last line especially caught my attention. We have no idea what the media will be like in 10 years. The Internet has changed the way we live and work and play-and it only became a staple in our lives in the 15 or so years. New technology is being developed everyday, and there is really no way we can predict what the media will be like in 2014 because of it. Watching this video was an eye-opening experience and made me realize that in the PR field, we must be prepared for all sorts of new advances to be thrown our way. Thank you for sharing this with us.
8/8/2005 at 12:32 pm
elijah
yes, it is exciting and scary, but the final comment is the point of the video.
…is there another way?
yes, the reason the new york times and and most others will fail is because they refuse to adapt to the new media. if they find a way to adapt and survive, they will continue to be a trusted “paper”.
as always, it’s all in the marketing, but now on a mind blowing level. the possabilities are limited to imagionation. that’s cool.