What will happen in American journalism in 2007? Here, in the multiple-choice format borrowed from (and with grateful apologies to) columnist William Safire, are my own best guesses. Answers are at the bottom. (Note: “All” or “None” are valid choices.)
1. The biggest network-news shock will occur when:
A. A major broadcast network kills its evening news show due to low ratings and the prospect of making more money with a “reality” show
B. CBS replaces Katie Couric with Howard Stern
C. Google launches a highly viewed daily “newscast” featuring editor- and audience-selected YouTube videos, and syndicates the program to independent TV stations
2. CNN will:
A. Hire Ann Coulter to make itself even less distinguishable from Fox News
B. Restore its reputation for respectable journalism by firing Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck
C. Create a system for routinely paying citizen journalists for their videos
3. Local TV news shows will:
A. Start producing actual news reports
B. Create special segments featuring video news releases
C. Attempt to persuade citizen journalists to provide all the content without compensation
D. Collaborate with citizen journalists, and pay them, to produce more comprehensive reports
4. The first major American news organization to ask its audience for reporting help on a major project will be:
A. New York Times
B. Washington Post
C. NBC News
D. Fox News
5. Most newspaper executives will:
A. Continue to downsize their newsrooms without any real plan for the long term
B. Complain incessantly about competition from online advertising competitors
C. Remain suspicious of citizen media except as a possible way to save money
D. Innovate at the edges, not in the core functions
6. The number of top editors at over-100,000 circulation newspapers who will quit or be fired:
A. Fewer than 3
B. 3-7
C. 8-12
D. More than 12
7. Scandals will emerge with the disclosure of:
A. Inflated circulation numbers for magazines
B. Special-coverage deals between news executives and newsmakers
C. Widespread pay-for-play deals involving bloggers
8. Google will:
A. Pull more and more advertising away from other media companies
B. See its stock drop precipitously as unfixed click-fraud drives away advertisers
C. Offer an online marketplace connecting citizen media creators and media organizations
D. Start a print magazine called “Googling”
9. The most important journalism innovation will be:
A. The combination of reputation and popularity in selecting news that matters
B. Sophisticated “Web 2.0” mashups
C. A major investigation, reported in part by the audience, leading to significant state and/or federal legislation
10. A prominent blogger will:
A. Lose his/her house in a libel judgment or settlement
B. Win a Pulitzer prize in journalism
C. Win a MacArthur “genius” grant
Answers: 1-C; 2-none; 3-C; 4-B; 5-all; 6-B; 7-all; 8-a; 9-all; 10-A.
on Dec 29th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
re:
9. The most important journalism innovation will be:
A. The combination of reputation and popularity in selecting news that matters
Dan,
I’m not sure what they mean by “news that matters” — it seems an ill defined phrase to me: news that matter …to whom? … in what circumstance? etc.
aside from that, I don’t know that using “reputation” is necessarily such a good idea — at best, it seems to be just an approximation of qualities that may be better assessed on their own right (I would even favor “blind assessments” — where those who assess pieces of news have no idea who wrote the stuff… it *shouldn’t* make a difference… of course, this assumes you could independently check facts etc.)
Delia
on Dec 30th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Regarding 3-C, you might be interested in this piece in _The Register_:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/29/photojournalism_and_copyright/
Note I don’t agree with everything in it, but it makes some points relevant to the earlier long thread about photojournalism.
on Jan 6th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Damn, and I was hoping the answer to #10 would be C.
on Jan 16th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
[…] Dan Gillmor is a wise man in the citizen media world, so it’s with interest I read his media predictions for 2007. They are about US media, but interesting none the less. And I like the quiz format of this post (which Gillmor’s borrowed from columnist William Safire). 9. The most important journalism innovation will be: A. The combination of reputation and popularity in selecting news that matters B. Sophisticated “Web 2.0″ mashups C. A major investigation, reported in part by the audience, leading to significant state and/or federal legislation […]