Journalism As an Industry Will Be Greatly Disrupted But Storytelling Will Grow To Be More Important Than Ever

With the emergence of Web 3 and the movement into the metaverse coupled with AI moving society forward at never-before-seen exponential rates, the journalism industry will be greatly disrupted and many career journalists will be forced to retrain and move into other professions because they can not keep up. The major players in the journalism industry have continuously shown over the last two decades that they are slow to adapt to advancements in technology and just as they have finally gotten some semblance of an understanding of social media platforms, the movement of readers into the metaverse is going to leave them yet again not up to date and not in places that their readers are. Will they be able to find ways to monetize fast enough in this new and constantly changing world of the metaverse while providing value to their audiences? The answer…probably not quick enough.

In order for these companies to survive, they will need to spend a lot of time and money exploring these new possibilities in the metaverse and with AI. This is something that they will need to do starting right now. The chances that older outlets and publications will allocate these funds and resources to this cause soon enough seem very low as these companies are already struggling with disruption to subscribers and ad revenue.

While large existing companies may not be able to adapt quick enough to survive, the metaverse will be ripe for new players in journalism who are more nimble and adaptive to the new technology. One thing is certain, good storytellers and the entire domain of storytelling will thrive in a way that has never been seen before. Audio journalism will continue to expand as it is the most accessible to people and does not have the same threats to it that print and written journalism have. With more free time on their hands with the popularization of things like self-driving cars, many people will have more time to consume media and news in the immediate future. As society moves further into the metaverse however, the mediums with which people consume media will most definitely change.

For a fully functioning democratic society to exist, journalism and experts who dedicate themselves to focusing on telling the truth will always be needed. The question though is are the slow-moving corporations who have become increasingly more polarized, questioned by their audiences, and swayed by current advertising realities going to make it? Some may survive, but for the most part, I am guessing that most of them will take significant hits.

What can individual journalists do? Learn about AI and how it can help in their reporting. Explore the possibilities that are now available through DAOs. How could these possibilities apply to  journalism? Explore the metaverse and get comfortable with it before everyone else does. Governments should focus on how to combat disinformation and misinformation in this decentralized yet increasingly anonymous new world.