The Future of News
I went to a conference the other day where the future of broadcasting was unveiled to me. With a straight face, the media giant I was meeting told me the future lay in:
AMBIENT NEWS
This is where the consumer is so immersed in facts and events that they are not even aware that they are being informed. They predict that we will get to the stage very soon that so many people are consuming the media (presumably piped through from them at a price) that we won’t even realise we are being an audience. People won’t go to the news the way they used to. They won’t sit down with a paper or wait for the TV bulletin, because they will already know, because the latest headlines will be printed on the back of their supermarket receipt. Or they will catch the latest football scores on the ATM window while they wait for their cash.
I think this is a shame. Imagine if everyone finds out everything at the same time.
“Hey guess what?!?!”
“Yeah, I just heard.”
“Fifteen times, wasn’t it?”
“It’s sixteen now.”
(pause)”Yeah, I just got that, too.”
“What about the -”
“-them too.”
“Right.”
“And the markets are down-”
“-1500 points. Which means the-”
“-price of-”
“-crude is going to hit a-”
“-ten year high.”
“Now here’s Jim with the weather.”
Shame.