Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs unveils the iPad at an official ceremony in January.
In a society where technology seems to be changing at a rate that is equivalent to the blink of an eye, one piece of technology that has caught the attention of the general public is Apple‘s infamous iPad, which was first introduced to the American public last April. Although the device received a lot of criticism from technology critics for being a costly expense and unnecessary device that could be easily supplemented with an iPhone, iPod, or laptop, American consumers have shrugged such assertions and have been on a iPad buying frenzy. In fact, according to a recently released report from JP Morgan Chase, Apple has sold nearly 7.33 million iPads during its first quarter last year and 4.7 million more during its second. What’s more, this increase in sales contributed to Apple’s recently reported quarterly net profit of $5.99 billion last year, marking the first time in two decades that Apple edged out more profits than its fiercest competitor, Macintosh.
Although many occupational fields have reaped the benefits of this new technology, journalism experts in particular see a promising future for the device that may help the struggling field reinvent itself during a time when print circulation profits are gradually decreasing and online hits are adversely increasing. The New York Times alone reported a 15 percent increase in digital advertisement sales last year, but a $4.3 million net loss in revenue due to declining print advertisement sales and an overall decrease in circulation. Moreover, a gradual movement into mobile media is further strengthened by studies that support the fact that consumers are increasingly turning to mobile media to get their news rather than relying on According to a study conducted by mobile application developer TigerSpike, whose clients include the The Telegraph, The Economist, The Australian, and Mail Online, the average engagement time that a person spends on mobile applications is 30 to 34 minutes, which is five times the average for publications throughout the world.
As a result of this high amount of mobile engagement among readers, many steps are being taken by publications to increase their presence online through the creation of mobile applications that would allow users to the access the same news Found online and in print on their smartphones, such as the one used by The New York Times. In addition, media entrepreneurs are also taking on more ambitious projects, such as the one that is currently being undertaken by the Northern Territory Mobile Journalists Project and the Australian government in which journalism professionals teach young Aboriginal students video journalism skills that they later use to make their own videos of every day life in remote tribal villages on special-tailored iPhones. These videos are then uploaded to Australian government website that is accessible for anyone to view who may be interested in an anthropological documentation of Aboriginal life.
Aboriginal video journalists (above) use specially tailored iPhones to document daily life activities in their villages. These videos are then uploaded to the Australian government website for the public to view.
Another ambitious project that is currently being undertaken by media mogul Rupert Murdock and Apple is the creation of The Daily, a news publication that is specially tailored for the iPad. However, some analysts suggest that interest in the five-month old mobile application may be dwindling due to a declining readership that has been reflected in how often people link stories to their social media accounts. Although the publication has been mum about its subscription rates, an analysis of PostRank data — a company that tracks how often content is shared through social networking websites — by Nieman Lab‘s Joshua Benton revealed that people were posting items from The Daily on their social media accounts gradually less over time, which may hint that interest for this relatively novel concept may be stagnating.
So, in a certain sense, does this gradual shift from print-based media to online media ultimately signify the death of the printed word, which has previously been the primary way in which readers received their news? According to University of Oregon adjunct journalism professor Ed Madison, the answer is: maybe not. Madison explained that the online component serves as a marriage between the two seemingly different worlds, since the printed word can oftentimes supplement videos or other types of multimedia pieces that can be found online. As the popularity of online media continues to increase among readers and news publications alike, Madison predicts that a large amount of printed material will be migrated online for the public to view.
Whether or not this is the foreseeable future of journalism is still not yet certain, but what is certain is that we, as journalists, need to begin to learn how to use these types of technologies in a rapidly changing world that is moving closer and closer to a digital one.
darinmoriki 