Journalism In The 2100s

Future of Journalism

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What’s the state of journalism today? And what will it look like in the year 2100?

Maybe a much better question is: what will it look like in 2030?

Scanning the internet, I saw a lot of references to hyperpersonalized news and deepfakes. Then there’s this article with four competing scenarios for news generation and control of related media spaces.

Some takes are more doom-and-gloom than others, like this City Magazine piece that predicts “the end of news as we know it” by 2030. A survey from the Institute of Public Relations notes diminishing optimism among respondents, on the longevity of traditional journalism evolving from print media.

Meanwhile, just for fun, I did a traditional search on Bing, not Google, for “journalism in the year 2100,” and found that the pundits didn’t have much to say at all, though Copilot gave me this:

“By 2100, journalism will have evolved far beyond the digital-first models of today, shaped by decades of AI integration, immersive media, and global connectivity. While the exact form will depend on technological, political, and cultural developments, several trends from current research and projections suggest a likely landscape.”

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That’s pretty anodyne.

A Human Conversation

Recently, at a TED talk event, I took the stage with veteran journalist John Chesto, to get more of his thoughts on this type of change.

First, since we are both invested in the local Boston community, we talked a little bit about realities around local universities like Harvard and MIT.

“It's been slow going these days,” Chesto said, observing challenges around Harvard’s expansion plans. “Interest rates have made construction expensive, so we haven't seen a lot of buildings go up … but Harvard's going to plow ahead.”

He also gave some props to MIT, and expressed confidence in the future of these east coast institutions:

“I think that there's a bright future if we get the right plan in place, take advantage of all of the smart people coming out of here, coming out of MIT, certainly coming out of Northeastern, some of our other universities,” he said.

We talked about tech companies surviving past challenges like the mini-computer bust in the 90s, and we talked about project Whirlwind and other academic contributions to the present day. We discussed the regional competition between Boston in the east, and California in the west.

“The Bay Area is, in some ways, way ahead of us,” Chesto said, “but we still have a ton of semiconductor companies, hard tech companies, and I think that's part of the future too … figuring out how to make machines smarter, when we have some of the best robotics experts in the world here.”

We talked about Amazon sending their robotics operations to Silicon Valley out west, and then bringing them back to Massachusetts, in a process I likened to “organ rejection.” We agreed that, really, the race for regional dominance is a jump ball.

“It says something that Amazon said ‘we’ve got a sell our robots here,’” Chesto said. “It's a pretty massive undertaking that they have here … but it's the (work on) industrial strength robots that really is our strong suit.”

Defining Physical AI

I’ve heard a lot of different definitions of physical AI over the past year, but in talking with Chesto, I was reminded of the old phrase “I know it when I see it.”

“We all know the dogs from Boston Dynamics,” he said. “I think they’re a little freaky. What's interesting, though, is the robot companies, including Boston Dynamics, have actually pledged to only do good. They want to make it clear they don't want these things used for nefarious purposes.”

Talking Trains

Chesto then brought up something that’s very important to him. And I agree that trains are very much a bellwether for technological progress in a nation, and that, in the U.S., we are sadly, very far behind.

“What we need is flexible trains to blend right in to the subway, so that you can't even tell the difference between commuter rail and subway,” he said. “I've been to Paris two years ago, and that's how the Paris system works, and it's really amazing ... we need to get to that point, and it's been slow going.”

10,000 More Articles

As I noted, Chesto has been prolific: I asked him what’s going to be in his next 10,000 articles.

“Some of them are going to be about AI,” he said. “A lot of people are more optimistic about AI than I am, but I do see AI making us more efficient in a good way.”

As for “down sides,” he spoke about information gathering, and AI’s limitations.

“AI is not going to be able to call up sources, or have lunch with sources, and get what's really going on,” he said. “I mean, that's what I do for a living, so far at least, it’s protected from that.”

He mentioned learning about something in journalism school, years ago, called peer-assisted reporting.

“The technology has changed so much since then,” he noted. “But all that I learned in that class is really useful. One thing that I learned in journalism school, but also through my life, is how to interact with people, how to find out what's going on by talking to people, and I think that skill is still what's going to keep our profession around.”

Your Paper Delivery

My last question was around the format of news delivery going forward. Chesto, who works for the Globe, noted that he gets an employee discount, but still pays significant money to get his paper copy delivered every day.

“The industry itself is still struggling to find that new model,” he added. “I would say that it's going to become more personalized. What's it going to look like? You know, I prefer the printed page … but I think it's going digital. Hopefully, I'll still have my print paper for a little while longer.”

There you have it: trains, and newspapers, and a healthy dose of Boston, Mass. History. Call me old-fashioned, but I like all of this stuff, and think that it’s important, so before you go over to TikTok, or check the weather app, or dig into Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever, think about some of the traditional ways that the old world is still surviving.

Stay tuned.