Challenges for everyone managing the digital transition

Originally posted to www.press.org October 17, 2011

Many people love their technology, including mobile phones, iPads and other tablets and their laptop computers. Does anyone love their desktop? Not sure about that.

Having just spent a week in my native Kansas, speaking with groups and individuals around the University of Kansas, it became clear to me that the tremendous shifts in technology we’re all experiencing are also causing more than just a little stress. It reminds me of the book “Future Shock” written back in 1970 by futurist Alvin Toffler, who was credited for coining the term “information overload”. He saw a lot of this coming.

Where’s the stress occurring? All over. It is in the heartland, just as much in our cities.
It is certainly among the young journalism students, who are trying to anticipate where the next jobs will be. They wonder whether there will be enough of those jobs. These questions are being asked among those interested in news as well as strategic communications and public relations. Given the loss of jobs among traditional news outlets and elsewhere over the past decade, the reasons for concern are real.

There’s stress among consumers of news. People are worried about the viability of their hometown newspapers and broadcast outlets, wondering who will monitor members of Congress, leaders at the Statehouse and local city commission.
Managing the emerging technologies, finding the right apps and learning how to use them is another issue requiring adaptability. There was an active discussion among members of a group of graduate students, with whom I met, whether the tablet computer is as universally capable as we think. They debated how it stands up to the hype. Some thought it is fine for watching movies and playing games, but not so good for managing documents or creating content.

Worry extends to some of my long-time friends in the Midwest, in journalism-related professions. Will they have job security? Are they doing the right things to anticipate demand as more users migrate to the high-tech gadgets now popular, leaving analog products behind? One friend is working with a new business model that doesn’t take advertising or subscriptions, but relies on funding. Another friend, now with a smaller newspaper group, is seeing withering advertising revenues, coupled with shaky paid circulation for weekly publications.
Professors are always discussing how best to train these young people, as rapid changes are occurring in the workplace. There’s agreement basic skills are just as important as ever. People are consuming more media and information, but that doesn’t appear to be creating better writers.
I reminded the students that this is a time of tremendous opportunity. There are many winners, as well as losers, amid these shifts. Some of the easy to peg winners are speaking at The National Press Club this year, including Harvey Levin of TMZ.com and Arianna Huffington. They saw the digital train coming down the tracks.

Entrepreneurial instincts are urgently needed within existing enterprises, as well as for creation of the information providers that are still to come. Better storytellers, presenters, editors, producers and photographers remain in demand in the news business. An app has not been created to make those human-required skills obsolete, not yet anyway.

I’m grateful for the wonderful hospitality that was universally displayed by the people at the University and around Lawrence during my visit. It was refreshing to see the panoramic landscapes and massive cloud formations, all offset by premature fall coloring brought on by a dry summer. But it was most heartwarming to see the enthusiastic, bright and kind people where I once lived.