The future of journalism...

There's a fascinating series of articles from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism about the future of the medium. The first section appears to be geared mostly to newspapers...but, seeing as newspapers are in more dire circumstances than local TV, they are the most likely to take on major changes (and thus, eventually learn the lessons that local TV will be forced to endure in the near future). I'm still working my way through it all, but here are a few highlights from what I've read so far:

"The future of journalism is selling expertise, not content...We are operating in the most creative phase of the media industry’s history. A time when broadcast, text and social media are colliding." - Edward Roussel (To Prepare for the Future, Skip the Present)

It is the nature of disruptive technology that we almost always get it wrong when we try to guess the real use and impact of a new invention. The debate is over. Hand-inked bibles, horse-drawn carriages, pagers: A few still exist, but they have mostly been overtaken by newer technology. The same is true for the monopoly of the publisher. Journalists no longer control the message. -Katie King (Journalism as a Conversation)

[Jeff] Jarvis, who teaches at the City University of New York, argues that journalism today is a “process not a product.” Journalists must sift, sort and curate the news, he contends. “Do what you do best. Link to the rest.” The question Jarvis poses is this: Do we need more information or do we need, as a society, journalists dedicated to finding the gold nuggets amidst this raging river of content? -Katie King (Journalism as a Conversation)

I also came across The Daily Beast as a result of my reading these pieces. They call themselves 'curated news aggregation,' both a fascinating term and a potential model for the future. Its definitely something worth checking out...