A changing of the media?

Newspapers are suffering palpitations. But rather than get up off the couch and try to strengthen a new heart, they seem stuck to palpable tension. The business is suffering, as jobs are continually dropped and cut (read more from Maryland, or Virginia, or Kansas). So where is the news headed?

My belief is that the media will always be here. People always need to know. But how people come to know may change drastically. Even how we may ask the questions may change, as what was once the five Ws (who, what, when, where, why and that H, how) may now become Michael Bloomberg's the five Fs (first, fastest, factual, final and factual). In Bloomberg News, reporters use this model to help write stories before they happen. Rather then report, they predict most of the story and wait until they have some release of verification that will allow them to be the first to publish the story. Of course this method is modeled for reporting business news and Bloomberg demands that a very young staff report this way. But where are we headed? Is our emphasis now geared to be the first to lock, load and fire these stories out into the world or have we forgotten content?

The new media should not refocus on quickness, or at least not entirely. Rather the technology should be modified to help create deeper, layered pieces. We should help marry all these mediums into strong stories, not use them as crutches to quicken a message or certainly not to beat out competition. Of course, there may not be any money in the later.

Read the transcript of this NPR broadcast here.