Sarah Wingfield

_{Post #1 for Digital Media Issues (Predictions)}

At the core of human existence is connection. We ache to be social, long for attention, pull at each other’s heart strings seeking empathy, attempting to persuade, or rally others. Once social media took the internet by storm, of course the lawless land would reckon with norms, trends, and futures.

Could anyone have predicted such a takeover? Now that digital platforms are able to stream rather than broadcast through antennae, cables, or satellite dishes, we’ve come full circle. Streaming is riddled with ads, subscriptions, and now….BUNDLES ARE BACK. We have run so far in new directions, we’re right back where we started.

SO. What’s next in our age of rampant misinformation, diamond computing, massive data centers, wobots (as my nephew would have said many moons ago), artificial intelligence, and seemingly no accountability structures?

Let’s dive in.

When they go big, we go small.

_{(and may the snakes eat their own tails)}

Heather Chaplin predicts in her article that there will be a “rise of informal news networks.” To her this reads as now-old-fashioned modes of “spreading the word” such as “…face-to-face conversation, text chains, WhatsApp groups, wheat-pasted fliers, art exhibits, local discussions about international pieces of investigative journalism, Facebook groups, and YouTube channels — as well as written articles, podcasts, and video.” This is a bandwagon I will gleefully jump on as I, myself, have begun to share news, happenings, events, books, stories, and networks via my personal newsletter (holla to subscribe ;) ), Instagram stories, all-staff emails, and word of mouth.

Coming from not just the general arts community in Austin, Texas, but specifically the more niche dance community there, the power of informal news has never been lost on me. The ATX dance community is tight-knit despite its sprawling and ever-morphing membership. There is not formal membership, yet we all know each other or understand who a stranger is based on who they work with. This relatively small, yet growing, community is, and has been, dependent upon informal news sources more than formal news sources. Word of mouth, flyers in coffee shops and local retail stores, shout outs at other events, social media posts and shares, and event calendars are at the heart of this community’s strength, success, and longevity.

Ben Smith predicts in his article that “If media companies can’t figure out how to be the bundlers, other layers of the ecosystem — telecoms, devices, social platforms — will.” Returning to the ATX dance scene for evidence of this emerging trend, we can see this shift taking place. As traditional sources either failed or just didn’t take for that community’s needs, members have taken to creating their own curated bundling mechanisms. We now have the Austin Dance Hub (@austindancehub — give it a follow, would ya? ;) ) sharing posts from across the dance community in a centralized place. Now you can go to one singular source for all things Austin Dance.

On that note, my two-part prediction is that:

1. Informal news will push most major networks out temporarily, and then the networks will re-emerge (similarly to the ad-riddled, bundle-crazy streaming platforms which have swallowed their own tail) to consolidate informal news sources into curated groups with an umbrella identity.
2. A mechanism (or mechanisms) of ensuring factual information and reliable sourcing will arise. Either based on the brand and reputation of the re-emerged, curated network groups or by something similar to the “verified” icon for social and dating platforms. I also predict AI will likely have quite a bit to do with it.