Today, you might have started your day by grabbing a newspaper and hunkering down with a cup of coffee. Or maybe you tuned into the TV while you get ready for work. Then, there's always news available on the radio while you drive to work.
But, how will you get yor news in the year 2020? Quinnipiac University Journalism Professor Richard Hanley says if you've ever seen a salad bar, you're good to go. "I think the way to describe it would be cafeteria media, ok, I'll take a little here, a little of that, just construct it each day of different stories of different media and that will be your diet," he said.
Hanley says picking up a newspaper will be very different: "The big newspapers in Connecticut will be around, they just won't be on paper." Hanley says television is well positioned, but what you see now when you turn on the TV, is not what you'll see in ten years. He predicts the recent NBC Universal/Comcast merger is a sign of things to come, and in 2020, we'll only see huge media companies and super-small, hyper-local, niche ones, like the New Haven Independent.
If you've ever wanted to be a reporter, the site's editor, Paul Bass, says your chance is just about here. "We're not gonna own the landscape all to ourselves, citizens are playing more and more of a part and they're our partners."
Even if you don't use Facebook or Twitter, you've probably heard of it. In fact, one of most compelling pictures of 2009 of a plane landing on NYC's Hudson River was snapped on a cell phone and distributed via social networking. Andrew Pergam is NBCConnecticut.com's Managing Editor, and part of his job is to keep up on social networkign trends. He says the reason why they are the wave of the future is because, "Twitter and social media networks are as close to real time as you can get."
With technology changing quicker than you can say NBC, from HD to 3D to 3G, even a crystal ball couldn't tell us what the latest gadget to get your news will be. The one thing experts say is for sure, it will be smaller than ever.
Hanley says the downside is if you can pick only what you want, then you, well, might pick only what you want.
"The one worry I have is that we'll retreat into silos, that Republicans will only listen to Republican media, Democrats will only listen to Democratic media, Independents will only listen to or read what their whim is on that given day."
