You don’t have to look any further than the latest tech products to understand that depth-sensing and spatial audio technologies will reshape the future of interaction that extends beyond a screen. We’ll see a significant shift in how users interact with data, which will require organizations to build new teams dedicated to the exploration of news within a digitally mapped world.
This isn’t a 2025-and-beyond journalism prediction — it’s here now.
The introduction of 5G and robust LiDAR technologies into mobile devices will demand that our industry do more, and our users will expect it. Casual users will quickly become tech-savvy ones who seek the content experiences that leverage, not just one, but all technologies best. We will begin to explore a spatial computing future that seamlessly connects our content experiences across many devices, including immersive technology platforms.
Organizations across the media industry will create teams dedicated to the exploration of immersive storytelling powered by the convergence of technologies like 5G, AI, and LiDAR. These teams will be a cross-section of several disciplines from across an organization and include talent with non-journalism backgrounds. These small dedicated teams will move innovation beyond a talking point into actionable experiments that will guide the industry.
Expect to see the evolution of audio beyond the podcast, interactive volumetric video experiences, galleries of 3D content captured by LiDAR, and immersive data visualizations. The future of interactive storytelling is about to get even more complicated. Are you ready?
Ray Soto is director of emerging technology for the USA Today Network.
You don’t have to look any further than the latest tech products to understand that depth-sensing and spatial audio technologies will reshape the future of interaction that extends beyond a screen. We’ll see a significant shift in how users interact with data, which will require organizations to build new teams dedicated to the exploration of news within a digitally mapped world.
This isn’t a 2025-and-beyond journalism prediction — it’s here now.
The introduction of 5G and robust LiDAR technologies into mobile devices will demand that our industry do more, and our users will expect it. Casual users will quickly become tech-savvy ones who seek the content experiences that leverage, not just one, but all technologies best. We will begin to explore a spatial computing future that seamlessly connects our content experiences across many devices, including immersive technology platforms.
Organizations across the media industry will create teams dedicated to the exploration of immersive storytelling powered by the convergence of technologies like 5G, AI, and LiDAR. These teams will be a cross-section of several disciplines from across an organization and include talent with non-journalism backgrounds. These small dedicated teams will move innovation beyond a talking point into actionable experiments that will guide the industry.
Expect to see the evolution of audio beyond the podcast, interactive volumetric video experiences, galleries of 3D content captured by LiDAR, and immersive data visualizations. The future of interactive storytelling is about to get even more complicated. Are you ready?
Ray Soto is director of emerging technology for the USA Today Network.
Ray Soto The news gets spatial
Mike Ananny Toward better tech journalism
Ståle Grut Network analysis enters the journalism toolbox
Jesse Holcomb Genre erosion in nonprofit journalism
Burt Herman Journalists build post-Facebook digital communities
Laura E. Davis The focus turns to newsroom leaders for lasting change
Victor Pickard The commercial era for local journalism is over
Candis Callison Calling it a crisis isn’t enough (if it ever was)
Nico Gendron Ask your readers to help build your products
Celeste Headlee The rise of radical newsroom transparency
Anna Nirmala Local news orgs grasp the urgency of community roots
Stefanie Murray and Anthony Advincula Expect to see more translations and non-English content
Masuma Ahuja We’ll remember how interconnected our world is
Megan McCarthy Readers embrace a low-information diet
Steve Henn Has independent podcasting peaked?
Loretta Chao Open up the profession
Sam Ford We’ll find better ways to archive our work
Moreno Cruz Osório In Brazil, a push for pluralism
Gordon Crovitz Common law will finally apply to the Internet
Nabiha Syed Newsrooms quit their toxic relationships
Rachel Glickhouse Journalists will be kinder to each other — and to themselves
Renée Kaplan Falling in love with your subscription
Don Day Business first, journalism second
Mark Stenberg The rise of the journalist-influencer
Pia Frey Building growth through tastemakers and their communities
Sumi Aggarwal News literacy programs aren’t child’s play
Colleen Shalby The definition of good journalism shifts
Tim Carmody Spotify will make big waves in video
Errin Haines Let’s normalize women’s leadership
John Saroff Covid sparks the growth of independent local news sites
Kate Myers My son will join every Zoom call in our industry
Danielle C. Belton A decimated media rededicates itself to truth
John Garrett A surprisingly good year
Marie Shanahan Journalism schools stop perpetuating the status quo
Sarah Stonbely Videoconferencing brings more geographic diversity
Ariel Zirulnick Local newsrooms question their paywalls
Edward Roussel Tech companies get aggressive in local
Robert Hernandez Data and shame
John Davidow Reflect and repent
Taylor Lorenz Journalists will learn influencing isn’t easy
Andrew Donohue The rise of the democracy beat
Matt Skibinski Misinformation won’t stop unless we stop it
Heidi Tworek A year of news mocktails
Kawandeep Virdee Goodbye, doomscroll
Janet Haven and Sam Hinds Is this an AI newsroom?
Rishad Patel From direct-to-consumer to direct-to-believers
Joshua P. Darr Legislatures will tackle the local news crisis
María Sánchez Díez Traffic will plummet — and it’ll be ok
Pablo Boczkowski Audiences have revolted. Will newsrooms adapt?
Natalie Meade Journalism enters rehab
Francesca Tripodi Don’t expect breaking up Google and Facebook to solve our information woes
Astead W. Herndon The Trump-sized window of the media caring about race closes again
Kevin D. Grant Parachute journalism goes away for good
Ben Werdmuller The web blooms again
Amara Aguilar Journalism schools emphasize listening
Sonali Prasad Making disaster journalism that cuts through the noise
Cindy Royal J-school grads maintain their optimism and adaptability
Charo Henríquez A new path to leadership
Kristen Muller Engaged journalism scales
Ariane Bernard Going solo is still only a path for the few
Marcus Mabry News orgs adapt to a post-Trump world (with Trump still in it)
José Zamora Walking the talk on diversity
Nonny de la Pena News reaches the third dimension
Rodney Gibbs Zooming beyond talking heads
Andrew Ramsammy Stop being polite and start getting real
Jacqué Palmer The rise of the plain-text email newsletter
Mark S. Luckie Newsrooms and streaming services get cozy
Julia B. Chan and Kim Bui Millennials are ready to run things
Tonya Mosley True equity means ownership
Patrick Butler Covid-19 reporting has prepared us for cross-border collaboration
Brandy Zadrozny Misinformation fatigue sets in
Richard Tofel Less on politics, more on how government works (or doesn’t)
Tauhid Chappell and Mike Rispoli Defund the crime beat
Garance Franke-Ruta Rebundling content, rebuilding connections
Alfred Hermida and Oscar Westlund The virus ups data journalism’s game
Jody Brannon People won’t renew
J. Siguru Wahutu Journalists still wrongly think the U.S. is different
Jonas Kaiser Toward a wehrhafte journalism
Zainab Khan From understanding to feeling
A.J. Bauer The year of MAGAcal thinking
Francesco Zaffarano The year we ask the audience what it needs
Hadjar Benmiloud Get representative, or die trying
Eric Nuzum Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder
Parker Molloy The press will risk elevating a Shadow President Trump
Alicia Bell and Simon Galperin Media reparations now
Joni Deutsch Local arts and music make journalism more joyous
Ernie Smith Entrepreneurship on rails
Matt DeRienzo Citizen truth brigades steer us back toward reality
Sarah Marshall The year audiences need extra cheer
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen Stop pretending publishers are a united front
Jer Thorp Fewer pixels, more cardboard
Bo Hee Kim Newsrooms create an intentional and collaborative culture
Whitney Phillips Facts are an insufficient response to falsehoods
M. Scott Havens Traditional pay TV will embrace the disruption
Kerri Hoffman Protecting podcasting’s open ecosystem
Joanne McNeil Newsrooms push back against Ivy League cronyism
Michael W. Wagner Fractured democracy, fractured journalism
Shaydanay Urbani and Nancy Watzman Local collaboration is key to slowing misinformation
Jean Friedman-Rudovsky and Cassie Haynes A shift from conversation to action
Mariano Blejman It’s time to challenge autocompleted journalism
Bill Adair The future of fact-checking is all about structured data
Brian Moritz The year sports journalism changes for good
Julia Angwin Show your (computational) work
AX Mina 2020 isn’t a black swan — it’s a yellow canary
Cherian George Enter the lamb warriors
Mike Caulfield 2021’s misinformation will look a lot like 2020’s (and 2019’s, and…)
Nikki Usher Don’t expect an antitrust dividend for the media
Sara M. Watson Return of the RSS reader
Ashton Lattimore Remote work helps level the playing field in an insular industry
Chase Davis The year we look beyond The Story
Gabe Schneider Another year of empty promises on diversity
Jennifer Choi What have we done for you lately?
Doris Truong Indigenous issues get long-overdue mainstream coverage
Nisha Chittal The year we stop pivoting
Marissa Evans Putting community trauma into context
Jessica Clark News becomes plural
Raney Aronson-Rath To get past information divides, we need to understand them first
Meredith D. Clark The year journalism starts paying reparations
Imaeyen Ibanga Journalism gets unmasked
John Ketchum More journalists of color become newsroom founders
Juleyka Lantigua The download, podcasting’s metric king, gets dethroned
Sue Cross A global consensus around the kind of news we need to save
Catalina Albeanu Publish less, listen more
Tanya Cordrey Declining trust forces publishers to claim (or disclaim) values
Rick Berke Virtual events are here to stay
Zizi Papacharissi The year we rebuild the infrastructure of truth
Talmon Joseph Smith The media rejects deficit hawkery
Aaron Foley Diversity gains haven’t shown up in local news
Delia Cai Subscriptions start working for the middle
Jennifer Brandel A sneak peak at power mapping, 2073’s top innovation
Samantha Ragland The year of journalists taking initiative
Ben Collins We need to learn how to talk to (and about) accidental conspiracists
Tamar Charney Public radio has a midlife crisis
Logan Jaffe History as a reporting tool
Annie Rudd Newsrooms grow less comfortable with the “view from above”
Cory Bergman The year after a thousand earthquakes
Benjamin Toff Beltway reporting gets normal again, for better and for worse
C.W. Anderson Journalism changed under Trump — will it keep changing under Biden?
Anthony Nadler Journalism struggles to find a new model of legitimacy
Jeremy Gilbert Human-centered journalism
Linda Solomon Wood Canada steps up for journalism
Christoph Mergerson Black Americans will demand more from journalism
Ryan Kellett The bundle gets bundled
Alyssa Zeisler Holistic medicine for journalism
Gonzalo del Peon Collaborations expand from newsrooms to the business side
Chicas Poderosas More voices mean better information
Rachel Schallom The rise of nonprofit journalism continues
Nicholas Jackson Blogging is back, but better
Jim Friedlich A newspaper renaissance reached by stopping the presses
David Skok A pandemic-prompted wave of consolidation
Hossein Derakhshan Mass personalization of truth
David Chavern Local video finally gets momentum