Monday, January 28, 2013

Agents of change; How news agencies fare in the future

News agencies. They're something most of us don't think about on a day-to-day basis, but they often are the source for much of the news we assimilate throughout the day. AP, Reuters, and other news agencies seemingly operate on a different plane of existence from newspapers and the like. They don't own their own publications, their names are known almost exclusively by news-buffs and journalists.

So what do I think of them?

You know, I really don't know.

If you were expecting a definitive answer, I suspect you'll be disappointed. However, most of life's challenges are not so cut-and-dry as "this is good" or "this is bad." The world exists not in black-and-white, or even in shades of gray, but in the full spectrum of light, from ultraviolet to infrared and beyond in both directions.

Now that I've finished waxing philosophical, let's get down to the nitty gritty.

On the one hand, news agencies provide a service that is invaluable. They consolidate the resources of numerous journalists and reporters, allowing for the swift and accurate acquiring of information. By consolidating these resources, news agencies can reach farther than most organizations, tapping previously unreachable sources of information.

This sounds wonderful, right? How could I be so ambivalent about such a valuable service?

The problem lies in technology. Namely, the rapid growth of communication and social media technologies. The internet in general has revolutionized the way we divulge and digest information. Cell phones, Twitter, satellite broadcasts and the like give us instant access to information from nearly anywhere on the planet (and sometimes off it).

With these new technologies, the throne of information upon which news agencies like AP and Reuters have sat for nigh on two centuries is quickly crumbling. When anyone in Russia with a camera phone can take a picture and have it be seen by everyone in the United States within minutes, the place of an agency that exists solely to collect and distribute information quickly evaporates.

So if these news agencies no longer have a place in the world, how can I refuse to trumpet their demise?

The answer is simple. They haven't crumbled yet. The way they are doing this is through providing well-written pieces of news to both newspapers and the internet directly, a service that is most definitely not something any Russian with a camera phone can provide.

In truth, I think the answer to the dilemma of the fate of news agencies lies somewhere in between dominance and irrelevance. News agencies must reinvent themselves as the AP is doing. They must provide well-written, comprehensive articles that carry more information than 140 characters can provide. They must house their own stories online, cultivate a greater name for themselves with the lay-news-consumer. And they must continue to give newspapers and other publications access to their stories, allowing them to reach the widest audience possible.

News agencies will slowly start to decline. I think this is an inevitability of the information age. But, with proper planning and foresight, they can continue to thrive as a source of detailed, accurate and well-written information.

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