Overview

J676 will explore the future of news from three standpoints. First we will explore the extensive and exploding literature on the shift from print to digital consumption of news, looking at multiple examples of new forms of digital consumption and analyzing them from the standpoint of both publishers and end users. We will concentrate on new material on the web rather than academic literature, although there will be some academic reading. The organizing perspective will be on new media ecologies, the changing set of interrelationships among layers of producers (institutions, new networks of producers, and individuals) and consumers.

Second, we will view the news future from the point of view of reporters and producers, looking at the new forms of multimedia that characterize the new news universe, and the tools that will be used to produce it. We will be looking at the changing shape of news production, examining multi-media, social media, and new forms of hyperlocal news, among others, as well as changing techniques. Third, we will spend significant time on the changing consumption of news: the tools and formats, but also the users themselves, asking who will be reading news in the future and how. We will pay particular attention to the new platform of the iPad, both as a new medium in itself, and as one that shows us something of the future of news produced for tablets.

This class is new, and it is experimental. I assume that many of you know as much or more than I do about some of the topics we will be covering, so the class is really a joint exploration more than a lecture. That means, however, that your participation at all levels of the class is very important.