Technology in the coming year will be overwhelming, if not scary. But if you aren’t planning to embrace the challenges, then you’re missing an opportunity to learn and connect with new audiences. So as not to overwhelm you with a laundry list of relevant tech, let’s focus on a handful I expect will disrupt our industry in 2018.
In the new year, people will get real about virtual reality. Audience adoption will grow considerably as lower-cost headsets enter the market, but so will their expectations of what true VR is. We’ll begin to see a slow shift from dedicated monoscopic 360° video pieces in exchange for high-production-value interactive experiences. These changes will drive the demand to produce high-quality content, which will be difficult to achieve, so you’ll see fewer organizations supporting the platform. Organizations that do continue to support the development of virtual reality projects will create some of the best narrative-driven experiences we’ve ever seen.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention augmented reality. This emerging platform is quickly catching up to virtual reality, but don’t expect AR to be a mainstream platform in 2018. We’ll begin to see more AR applications, but most will be limited to 3D objects appearing above a surface when a user points their phone’s camera at a printed image — I call this smoke and mirrors, as that tech has been available for years. With native integration of AR functionality into mobile devices (ARKit and ARCore), you should start seeing the breadcrumbs of the platform’s future with the introduction of goofy looking AR-enabled eyewear later in the year.
I expect someone reading this will be the first in our industry to develop a functioning AR news platform built for the new glasses. The user experience and functionality will be clunky, but the prototype will drastically change the way we think about media consumption and location-based personalization beyond the screen of a mobile phone.
In an effort to support the expanded development needs of virtual and augmented reality experiences, you’ll begin to see the creation of dedicated teams that closely resemble that of videogame development studios. These teams will be made up of a diverse group of journalists, designers, and developers. A new audience will begin to take notice as these development teams push the boundaries of interactive storytelling. It will be a challenge, but organizations that have been dedicated to supporting immersive technologies will reach a new and more connected audience.
Accessing media will be easier than ever before, thanks to visual discovery applications powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. These technologies will allow users to surface content through text, image, and facial recognition by simply aiming their phone’s camera at a point-of-interest. Relevant content will be surfaced providing the user an opportunity to explore and discover stories within their communities.
2018 is the year we all need to stop making excuses and jump head first into the unknown. We must embrace these technologies and understand the future of media will not be driven by what we’re already comfortable with. Take risks and trust your teams; their passion is infectious. Expect a few failures, but if you emerge without a few scrapes, then you’re doing it all wrong.
Ray Soto is director of emerging technologies at Gannett.
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David Skok Finding an information-life balance
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Jamie Mottram From pageviews to t-shirts
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Monique Judge Letting black women tell their own stories
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Tanya Cordrey Finally, the seeds of radical reinvention
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Vanessa K. DeLuca Women’s voices take center stage
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Sam Ford The year of investing in processes
Trushar Barot The Jio-fication of India
Gordon Crovitz Serving readers over advertisers
Pia Frey Address users as individuals
Borja Echevarría TV goes digital, digital goes TV
Luke O'Neil The end is already here
Ståle Grut Reclaiming audience interaction from social networks
Kawandeep Virdee Zines had it right all along
Jared Newman Venture funding and digital news don’t mix
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Caitria O'Neill The new court of public opinion
Joanne McNeil Gatekeeping the gatekeepers
Mariano Blejman News games rule
Pete Brown Push alerts, personalized
Edward Roussel Eyes, ears, and brains
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Rick Berke Value is the watchword
Joyce Barnathan It will be harder to bury the news
Jarrod Dicker Honesty in advertising
Pablo Boczkowski The rise of skeptical reading
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Taylor Lorenz Social and media will split
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Daniel Trielli The rich get richer, the poor scramble
An Xiao Mina Memes and visuals come to the fore
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Tamar Charney We get serious about algorithms
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Eric Nuzum Beyond the narrative arc
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Manoush Zomorodi Self-help as a publishing strategy
Jennifer Choi Standing up for us and for each other
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Adam Thomas Sharing is caring: The year of the mentor
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Evie Nagy Pivot to mobile video frustration
Nicholas Quah Stop talking trash about young people
Marcela Donini and Thiago Herdy Collaboration is the way forward for Brazilian journalism
Corey Johnson The pro-fact resistance
Jacqui Cheng Retailers move into content
Justin Kosslyn The year journalists become digital security experts
Rodney Benson Better, less read, and less trusted
Alan Soon The rise of start of psychographic, micro-targeted media
Will Sommer The year local media gets conservative
Joanne Lipman Journalists inventing revenue streams
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Matt Carlson Attacks on the press will get worse
Nicholas Diakopoulos Fortifying social media from automated inauthenticity
Jim Moroney Newspapers have to be good enough for readers to pay for
Kathleen McElroy Building a news video experience native to mobile
Rubina Madan Fillion Unlocking the potential of AI
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Sarah Marshall Loyalty as the key performance indicator
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Sam Sanders Shine the light on ourselves
Matt Boggie The intellectual equivalent of the Dead Sea