No Good News is…the News

The year is 2015 and “the press as you know it, has ceased to exist…” forewarns the speaker in the “Sci-fi” video clip Epic 2015 by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson.   Epic 2015 is a great tool to use in the classroom when discussing new technology and the media.   A mixture of historical truth and future predictions, Epic 2015 begins with the invention of the Web in 1989 (through the birth of Amazon, Google, Blogger, Friendster, Google News, G-mail, Newsbot, Picassa, Google Books, Cloud Computing, and more…) to the presentation of the New York Times going entirely online (printed news is reserved for only for the elite and elderly).   “No actual news organizations take part” in the reporting.   Instead, everyone is a reporter — paid by the popularity of their story.  According to Epic 2015, news becomes trivial, shallow, and sensational.   This is a timely prediction as Time magazine recently reported that 49% of people would feel unaffected if their local newspaper folded, and the New York Times discusses charging for online access.  I think Epic 2015 could be a great conversation starter on the future of media, social/news networking, access to quality information,  and the critical evaluation of information.   In the classroom, you could ask students to research other sources for a dicussion on the future of newspapers.   After all, there’s been a lot in the news lately about the news.