The most accurate predictions about journalism in 2008
It's the same procedure every year: in the last month of the year, scores of journalists will be called upon to try their hands as clairvoyants and more or less accurately divne the developments we'll see in the beat of the respective reporter in the year to come.
Now, the traditional way of doing this is talking to the various movers and shakers in the industry, as certainly was my strategy this year, but why bother with getting all those perspectives and sound bites when the future is so clearly on the cards?
Thus I give you Paul Berton's predictions which, though not very original,
may actually prove to be the most accurate predictions for the media industry at large in 2008 (via James Mitchell). Here's a few highlights:
- Criticism of journalists will continue unabated. Politicians will repeat that they've been misquoted and that articles are little more than fiction. Moviemakers will continue to portray journalists as bumbling fiction writers.
- The new owners of several newspaper chains will be accused again of slashing budgets and gutting newsrooms, which will be true, recession or not.
- All those who do not regularly read web blogs will again question their usefulness, but the number of blogs will continue to swell from the millions into the billions.
