Temporally subjective visions of news

It’s intriguing to look at the three provided videos (one from 1981, another from 1994, and one more from 2005) and examine how – even before the advent of at-your-fingertips mobile technology platforms and the cultural implementation of the Internet – those in the news industry were accurately predicting many of the conveniences and changes such revolutions would bring about. It seems evident that the importance of ease of access, made possible by virtual newspapers, was lost on no one, and the videos repeatedly touch, presciently so, on readers gaining access to their paper in their homes or on the go without needing to search for a newsstand. The revolutionary tablet technology was also highlighted by the videos, long before the iPad, even with its eventual name. Early on, people were predicting the embrace of customizable technologies, ones with the ability to filter news by type, adjust font size and other visual specifications, and provide access to news on the go. In the 1981 video, those working on taking their newspaper online did not see any massive financial upside to doing so. However, across that and the 1994 video, what’s missing is an appreciation for how dangerous and precedent-setting it would be to provide virtual versions of newspapers without perennial pay-walls or other ways to ensure subscribers/readers aren’t getting for free what had previously been sold. The most predictive of the videos, pertinent to the Museum of Media History, accurately predicts some of the most striking transformations of the media landscape, from the creation of virtually endless online data storage not dissimilar to iCloud or Google Drive, to the surge in “fake news” that a more participatory, public online platform for newsgathering seems conducive to cultivating. It does go a step further to predict massive, sprawling battles between media giants that end in mergers, such as the creation of Googlezon, but (so far) these alliances of necessity have not occurred in such public, striking ways.