The accessibility of new mobile technology is shaping our world in unimaginable ways. One field it is specifically advancing the future of is the news/media industry.
Social media is allowing journalists to connect with their audiences in ways they never could before. It is allowing journalists to make journalism a conversation instead of just a lecture. Journalists are able to bring the audience along on the reporting process. News is more “instant “ than it has ever been. Social media not only allows journalists to quickly and easily report news, it allows everyone to quickly and easily consume news.
Pew Research reported on how the trends in how people are consuming their news are rapidly changing. According to the graph below the percentage of adults who get their news from Television dropped from 57% to 50% in only one year. The number of adults who get their news from online sources raised from 38% to 43% in only one year. If this trend continues so rapidly, it could only be a few years before most people are consuming their news online.
Some news outlets are finding ways to adjust to these trends in news consumption. For example, NBC created a news show specifically for Snapchat in July of 2017. As news consumption on Snapchat dropped, they quickly adjusted and added the show to be on Instagram as well.
Stay Tuned is shot vertically and put on Instagram and Snapchat in quick clips called "stories." It targets a younger generation with flashy graphics and young, approachable hosts. It also gives news in very short and straight to the point style. This caters to the idea that younger generations don't want to spend the time watching a full news broadcast or reading a long form article.
Another example of a news show made specifically for social media is the idependent outlet The Young Turks show called The Breakdown. The Breakdown was made as a Facebook show. It is the "largest online news network in the world for millenials covering politics, pop culture and lifestyle." It uses the tagline “informing a new generation of news junkies.”
I believe that this could be the future of how we consume news. Not saying that this will happen anytime soon, but with how fast news consumption is changing eventually TV news will become a thing of the past. Attention spans of news consumers are changing and younger generations are not sitting down to watch a full TV news broadcast. Consumers want their news fast, straight to the point, and easily accessible. I believe that the smartest things News outlets can currently do is to create social media news shows specifically catering to the interest of younger generations.