Whatever the future, it's still about getting it right
Post categories: On the show,ÌýSocial media,ÌýYour views
| 10:35 UK time, Friday, 1 January 2010
Making predictions about how global media will develop is usually a fool's game.
Huge leaps in technology have occurred in the last few years. Three years ago, Twitter and the iPhone did not exist. The iPhone was released in mid-2007. Thirty months later it now accounts for half of all global mobile data traffic. Twitter is a powerful tool of social media, now a huge influence on election campaigns; most notably in the US and Iran.
One of the many pictures from Iran posted first on Twitter instead of traditional picture sources. Photo credit: SHADISHD173/AFP/Getty Images
In that period, global broadband subscribers have doubled from 200 million to over 400 million. Mobile phone penetration in emerging markets has grown 321 per cent, compared to 46 per cent in developed countries.
It's predicted that by the end of 2012, 90 per cent of the next billion mobile phone owners will come from the global south. There will be 300 million smart phones and 200 million extra global broadband subscribers.
There's a lot of change on the horizon.
But here are some things that are constant. I expect devices will become more powerful, more portable and multi-functional. The speed of change will always take your breath away and the ways in which audiences will choose to access media content will always surprise.
Audience expectations are growing at a rapid pace in the news arena; not least in their appetite to contribute to debates and campaigns, and their willingness to consume news when and how they choose.
It means a huge amount of data and information will be whizzing around the world. Issues that we once thought of as being local or national will quickly become global talking points. They'll be instant news, instant opinion, debates that generate more heat than light; and more opportunity for misunderstanding.
This brings huge challenges for the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú as we try to respond to the seismic changes in the global media landscape.
But we have high aspirations. It remains the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's aim to provide the most trusted, relevant and high quality international news in the world.
We want to continue to be an indispensable service of independent analysis, with an international perspective, which promotes greater understanding of complex issues. We want to continue to be a hub for challenging, inspiring global dialogue and debate; the exchange of views and ideas across international borders and cultural divides.
The key words here are 'independent' and 'international'. We serve no political or commercial interests, only those of our audiences.
Our international perspectives on the big issues that concern us all are a vital quality in a world where global forces are ever-more powerful.
The engine of that aim is the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's newsgathering machine. It is probably the biggest in the world and the envy of all those in international broadcasting.
The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's newsrooms and language services are rightly valued by all by our audiences - for its cool judgement, expertise and its unflagging insistence on "getting it right".
We believe that this kind of expertise and analysis enables people to make sense of their increasingly complex world, and thus empowered, lead more fulfilling lives. No matter what the future holds.
Peter Horrocks is the Director of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú World Service.
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Comment number 1.
At 2nd Jan 2009, voice_germany wrote:There are people that read five different newspapers every morning in order to compare their views to each other and on which issues the emphasis is put on. This can be translated to digital media and it is actually not a bad idea to get a multi-sided view. This takes a lot of time, even when you do this online.
I personally do not refer to only on sort of media from one country, so it is necessary to speak modern foreign languages to get an opinion that considers many aspects in a balanced way.
One aspext that hasn´t been mentioned is the background of the spectator - in a communication model the offer of news, for example from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, is only one side of the medal.
The other side of the medal that has not been mentioned above is that the user is confronted with a huge amount of informations and he needs a competence to deal with that situation in an appropiate way.
There are media and institutions with a higher and lower reputation, maybe this is an orientation.
A user that is an academic is something different than a person with a low school education, whether one likes this or or. So the complexity of news is more open to the first group, as some news need a social and historic background knowledge to put them in perspective.
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Comment number 2.
At 7th Jan 2010, eloso wrote:Enough already. Not sure if this is the correct place to put a general comment, but here it is. Bad news, bad news, bad news - is that all that you can report? Negative, negative, negative - is that your focus? Your reporters seem almost gleeful and revel in the negativity. It's a wonder that most of your listeners do not jump out of their windows listening to your programming. There is so much good news available to report, why not focus on it? If you don't, then who will?
Thank you for this opportunity.
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Comment number 3.
At 8th Jan 2010, Dave Farmer wrote:I specialise in social media thus;[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
Australia, Canada and the US are hot topics at the moment and then it will be back to The New Supreme Court in London!
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