Twitter, ‘appification’ and technology: Journalism predictions for 2012

What will 2012 bring for journalism? The Niemen Journalism Lab is rounding up predictions from experts to answer that question.

The fact that everyone is talking about digital isn’t at all surprising. However, what they’re saying about it might be a bit more unexpected.

What will 2012 bring for journalism? The Niemen Journalism Lab is rounding up predictions from experts to answer that question.

The fact that everyone is talking about digital isn’t at all surprising. However, what they’re saying about it might be a bit more unexpected.

Carrie Brown-Smith, a professor at the University of Memphis, suggests we may see the “burst of the social media bubble.” She praises Twitter for its ability to enable news organizations and journalists to disseminate stories, find sources and improve reporting, but says the Twitter universe is just too big. “Already overflowing streams are flooding,” she writes. “The likelihood that even your most interested followers will even see a tweet is ever lower.”

Nicholas Carr, a technology writer, discusses the closing gap between the businesses of software and media. The result? Well, if you own a smartphone, you’ve already been using them: Applications. “Apps are as much content-delivery services as they are conventional software programs. Newspapers, magazines, books, games, music albums, TV shows: All are being reimagined as apps,” Carr writes. “Appified, if you will.”

And Dave Winer says that technology is as woven into our culture as much as – if not more than – art, music, theatre, books, food and travel, and needs to be reviewed accordingly.