The technological bet to create a Metaverse, the new ecosystem of the Internet, and the revelations about Chinese advances in quantum computing, now herald what will be the future scenario of social communications in the world.
As these are two great qualitative leaps, one that will allow users to experience life in the real and virtual world in parallel and the other that will accelerate the super-conduction of data at ultra-fast speeds, the exercise of journalism must prepare for this tsunami of extraordinary changes.
If the smartphone has been, today, the tool that has allowed to amplify the audiences that seek to be informed, entertained, communicate and learn more, the irruption of the Metaverse viewers and applications will force it to rethink the ways of doing journalism in these new technological formats.
Because, in light of these new technologies, even the smartphone itself could be left behind.
And as we are already at the gates of a massive access to the fifth generation (5-G) of telecommunications, that is, to the world of the internet of things, it will be necessary to see in what situation the paper press will remain in a dominated environment totally digital in which useful information, I am not saying the news, will be more accessible and immediate on these platforms.
Until now, the print media have been able to survive with a quality offer that underpins their best assets, credibility and veracity, through a menu of analysis, in-depth articles and narratives (in terms of chronicles or reports) that offer a better context of reality.
From the moment that the fusion of 5G and the new applications of the Metaverse fully enter the stage, the priorities of information will compete with the utilitarian priorities of these technologies, until now more focused on a community of young users or digital natives. for whom printed paper is a relic of the past.
Now the challenge is to preview what will be the challenges that these revolutionary changes pose for both print and digital journalism and focus on testing and experimentation with the resources that are at hand, virtual reality, augmented reality and other components of intelligence. artificial, precursors of the new ecosystem that is to arrive in a few years.
- Translated from Spanish by Randy Rodriguez.
Director's Thoughts 