Is it only media, No!, the technological wave is being felt at every workplace but you can survive it.
Remember Y2K? I mean the year 2000 when every big and small company rushed to safeguard their data anticipating a millennium bug that could wipe out calendar information.
The technology of the future has the power today to replace human beings if they don’t evolve to be accommodated by the change.
Every industry from manufacturing to service has been benefited by the growth of technology, been a party to it and enjoyed it while it has laid off many employees.
If we were to take an example, the media industry today has completely changed. Earlier, a TV crew had to carry an expensive camera with restricted battery life to cover an event, today they are using top of the chain Samsung and Apple phones to cover events.
Which means that camera operator, reporter and other supporting crewmembers that used to travel together, has been reduced to a single person who could cover an event, edit and file the report on the go.
Therefore, here is a look at what the future holds and how could I not be vulnerable to the growing needs of my technology driven company.
Technologies of future
I have always dreamed of working for an organization like Bloomberg.
It has set new standards of news segregation, reporting, and filling.
Today, Bloomberg uses a technological arm called Cyborg, which dissects and feeds reports in the publishing system.
Cyborg is particularly helpful for business and data journalists; Cyborg can chew data, dissect it, create a report and spit it out.
It is untiring, accurate and fast that Bloomberg needs to be to beat its closest rival, the Reuters in a fast-paced digital world.
The same is also becoming a reality for The Washington Post, Los Angeles, and The Associated Press, which are using robots for reporting from a university level football match to the Presidential elections data.
AI, VR, AR, IoT, 5G, Cloud and much more
Innovate! That has become the calling card of the Journalism industry.
CNN is working extensively with companies in Japan that are currently working on innovative technologies.
These technologies, when used in journalism, can get you to the place where the news broke.
Imagine, President Trump, taking the oath office and you sitting in India at your home is as close as others can be.
This isn’t something that will come, this is happening right now, Samsung VR Gear priced INR 5000 Rs right now on Amazon is being used for the same.
Quartz, a multisource news aggregator is using Augmented Reality (AR) to deliver high-quality articles that are not only sourced from the best on the internet but carefully handpicked.
If you were to use Quartz on any iPhone 8 and above, you would easily make a difference in how the content is being delivered.
A bot, which minimizes human intervention, is selecting these articles and technically once the machine itself learns what to do next, there is no requirement of the employee who used to the same work.
So far, we had been consuming news and content on TV, on Computer or on phone but with the introduction of Internet of Things (IoT), this content would also be available on your durable products.
While you cook in the kitchen your fridge can read your latest handpicked news that has been selected depending on your choice of news-from business to fashion- all of it done by machine.
USA Today is making a story through virtual reality that plays news like a hologram for the reader and the hologram is not human it’s a machine that has generated that anchor.
Finally, 5G, it is not coming in India soon but when it does it would be at mean speed and mean cost.
5G will offer a download speed of 10 Gbps (Gigabytes per second) phew! that is fast, 4G currently offers 100 Mbps (Megabytes per second)- so that’s the difference.
Now, Imagine a Newsroom with Bloomberg’s Cyborg, speed of 5G, a machine that learns about your reader and plays it when he has full concentration. Isn’t your job at the line?
Is it on the line?
I would say, No! it is not because what we are talking about here is a big technological explosion.
These technologies will augment a newsroom or workplace with human support.
They might not eat up your job instantly but when you would only rely only on technology and not your instincts then, they would bite you hard.
I would only advise that when we talk about technology as a great thing to have come in our lives, we must be wary of it as well.
Therefore, it is up to you and me to avoid this hard bite and take the assistance of these technologies to generate powerful, cutting edge reports that are delivered directly to the reader when he is free.
And, for all who think it is hard to get through technology, believe me, you have survived waves of technological reforms and you would survive this one as well.
Fault Lines 
Well written. Articulate and to the point .
Thank you so much Akshay
Talk of people born in 60s 70s 80s. They are the ones who have witnessed the change …. Turn Tables to Wireless Music. Thick Paper Files to Video Documentation…. watching one channel ( DD) …. to digital platforms ….. Let it come …. we are ready …. and Thanks to our younger generation…. to expedite it.
Nice work brother.
Technology is strange. It excites you and scares you at the same time. Your article is interesting to read. It is commendable as to how you’ve given us an insight into the technological advances into the field of journalism. I had not read anything like that before. Technology question becomes all the more pertinent in relation to media because media in itself is so powerful.
As you correctly say technology is not new and we have survived it. Not in past few decades but centuries you may.
Machines were part of new technology that led to the great Industrial Revolution in Europe and led to the desire for them to colonise. Railways was a technological advancement that changed the face of administration by East India Company in India.
Harshit, very well done.
Indeed, We have survived waves of technology and we will continue to. Thank you Urvashi.
Machines and humans need to coexist in this world. None can exist by itself. Singularity is decades ahead. If we even make it past the climate crisis. But now we do need to control machine usage. But still it is an integral part of this spoilt lazy society so we can’t exactly eliminate it.
Exactly so jobs remain and these technologies help people/workplace
This is such a good read man..! So good..!
My point is like that I agree with the more advancement in technology people will be more dependent on the usage but as you see technology today exist too but what defeats it is a normal middle class or a lower class man will prefer a news paper but i like it where you said your refrigerator will be reading your and I’ve seen it’s prototype on youtube too..!
That would be really cool tho but the Problem lies there that all these things will be based on our personal choices and you see for example
You fill captchas and image captchas what are they , they are just a source for teaching AI that’s all we are making it more powerful and useful for future but that’s bad too..!
I say technology is good , it’s real.good but the problem with humans is that the thing it creates for his help they eventually or somehow turns the table round and it becomes bad for him itself.
Sonar gotta do something for that too…!
That’s all I have to say tho..!
But keep up the good work tho..!
You make some good points. Thank you
Rightly written! We are looking at technology driven future. Great job done!!
Thank you Tanvi, we are indeed looking at technology assisted future
It’s refreshing to see a blog post to talk about artificial intelligence without fear-mongering.
Overall well-written blog. Kudos.
Thank you Kanishk, looking forward to our conversation on same
Nice thought….with like of Bezos entering media space….tech innovations are expected more sooner than later
Indeed Sir, and workplace will have to adapt accordingly. Thank You!
Articulate and easy to understand for everybody. Best of luck for future.
Thanks Haaris. Same to you friend.
In a world where tech surrounds us, to fear it is the greatest blasphemy you could probably cause. Accept it like a gush of cool breeze with open arms. It’s coming, there’s no stopping it, so better adapt.
Agreed! Adapt or Perish
Have you ever considered about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and all. However think of if you added some great graphics or video clips to give your posts more, “pop”! Your content is excellent but with pics and clips, this site could certainly be one of the greatest in its field. Great blog!