Wearable devices, virtual reality and
modular mobile are just a few buzzwords journalists may be adding to their
vernacular.
Each year, digital strategist Amy Webb and
her consulting firm Webbmedia Group release a list of tech trends to
watch for in the coming year.
Featuring a total of 55
trends, this year's report explores a wide range of emerging technology
and tools, and IJNet's rounded up its top picks
to keep journalists up to speed.
One-to-few publishing
Newsletters, podcasts and niche
networks that captivate smaller audiences will make a comeback in 2015.
Rather than casting wide nets in hopes
of capturing the right audience, advertisers are resorting to niche networks.
Creating a product, such as a podcast or newsletter, directly geared toward a
smaller, specific audience allows media or other brands to maintain a more
personal relationship with audiences. A few newsletters and podcasts to
watch:
- Media REDEF, newsletter
- Today in Tabs, newsletter
- The Ann Friedman Weekly, newsletter
- This American Life, podcast
- Serial, podcast
Video
Consumers are creators, uploading
videos to social services such as Vimeo, Instagram and Vine.
According to the trend report, unique
monthly visits to video sites doubled in 2014 and most of those users visited
sites like Facebook and YouTube on their mobile devices. But with lag-time and
buffering as current pitfalls, Webb says better speed and delivery
are what's next for the global medium.
WebRTC is working on technology that will help computers
talk directly to each other rather than relying on a WiFi network, which
requires several steps before a user is connected, making it slower. If
successful, WebRTC will allow you to access videos — and Internet as a whole —
faster.
Algorithms
Algorithmic curation is a process that
automatically determines what content should be displayed or hidden and how it
should be presented to your audience.
Since its inception, Facebook has made
decisions about what should appear in your NewsFeed using its algorithm, which
decides which posts in your network will "engage you most." Google
and Yahoo News also use your online behavior to determine what content you
might be interested in. In 2015 — and long after it — algorithms curating
news will begin to track our most recent behavior.
"Rather than delivering a full
breaking news story to our mobile phones, algorithms will deliver the 'waiting
in line at Starbucks' version of that story, a more in-depth longread to our
tablets, and a video version of that story once we're in front of our connected
TVs," Webbmedia Group writes in its report.
Privacy
Ongoing breaches have continued to
dismantle the public trust.
Aspects of privacy took up seven trend
slots on the Webbmedia Group’s list this year.
As consumers — which include
journalists — become more concerned about their protection online, companies
are responding by releasing products to shield us from data breaches. Here are
some to look out for or try in 2015:
- Blackphone is a smartphone that prevents others from eavesdropping on your conversations.
- Open Whisper Systems provides encryption for Android calls.
- Twitter’s Digits will allow you to manage all applications from one place.
- MeWe is a private social-networking and file-sharing service.
Security
We have not seen other media
organizations developing systems to securely transfer information or encrypt
their own data.
Due to a significant number of cyber
attacks in 2014, the trend report recommends tightening up digital security in
order to stay safe.
The Guardian already prepared its SecureDrop
system in June 2014, but the report points out few other news organizations
followed suit. SecureDrop allows anyone to submit confidential documents to
Guardian reporters without having to worry about being tracked online.
Intelligent Drones
The upcoming crop of drones will have
the ability to think and make inferences.
As drones become more popular as a
reporting method — the University of Nebraska-Lincoln even has a Drone Journalism Lab
— they’ve also become smarter. Upcoming micro-drones and drone bots that will
work without human direction will make drone journalism even more exciting in
2015.
Collaborative Software
2015 may be the beginning of the end of
email as we know it, as more and more offices abandon internal email systems
for these apps.
Need an easier way to connect with editors
or fellow reporters while you’re on-the-go? Try substituting email with
productivity tools that combine email, instant messaging, social media and
cloud storage. If you’ve already tried Yammer or HipChat,
test out Wrike or Slack.
Breaking from the idea that Facebook
sucks up valuable work time, the social network will most likely debut an
interoffice communication system called Facebook
at Work in 2015.
Main image CC-licensed by Flickr
via Merrill College of Journalism Press Releases.
Source: http://ijnet.org
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