Top predictions for journalism in 2019

Journalism has evolved a lot over the past few years thanks to technological advancements and the media in general. News media platforms now have a great impact on people’s opinions. And for many, social media has become a primary source of news and information.

A drawback of fast-paced social media is that misinformation and fake news is rife. While this issue became a hot topic in 2018, it is likely to remain a key topic of debate in 2019 as well.

But all is not bleak with journalism: improving technology is a positive element that will help counter the impacts of misinformation and improve the quality of the content reported by journalists.

Here are some of the key developments expected to impact journalism in 2019.

Ad block will be the biggest roadblock for publishers

Ads do annoy when you are surfing web, and an advertisement pops out of nowhere. Most people tend to ignore these ads, and because of this, the frequency of these ads have increased to be able to catch the interest of the viewer. Different tactics are now being used by advertisers to get recognized the potential customers out there, but as the technology progresses, people have now started using ad blockers. They can be used by people to block out the unwanted ads that are bothering them. It is a hindrance for the publishers out there as this is their source of revenue and in a way you are blocking their revenue. A lot of publishers on the internet say that if the customer wants good content, they must put up with the ads that show up, but the consumers want things to be their way. They have made their choice. The consumer doesn’t want the annoying ads to pop up, and they still want good content. The publishers have to come up with newer techniques now!

Selling premium content will be the next radical transformation

The changes that have been taking place in technology have been massive and have made space for improvements in the services that already being offered to the people out there. The organizations like Netflix and Economic Times are now moving towards premium content, and they will be selling premium content for upgraded prices. Netflix has recently invested around $2 billion to be able to offer new content to its customers. Netflix was the pioneer of the direct-to-consumer offering of such a service and others are yet to follow. Organizations like Disney are trying to catch up with Netflix in the race.

Hotstar has also introduced its premium account and in the future will also allow the downloading of content for the premium account. When the viewers of Hotstar and Netflix are compared, Netflix has a higher proportion of people who pay subscriptions or have premium accounts, which shows that there is a shift towards premium content as compared to the previous years. With the increasing use of technology and ease of use, premium content is about to become the new thing in town.

Videos will be consumed as much as text

In the past few years, the shift towards videos and small clips that convey the message has been drastic. Advertisers, marketers, and organizations have started using videos to deliver the same message that could have been delivered through text. The written element is as important, but the younger generation prefers watching the video rather than spending energy on reading the text. Many websites are now focusing on delivering the message by using videos more than the written content. Lucky Generals is an advertising agency, which conveys most messages to its customers through videos on their website, even their mission statement. While companies like InVideo are revolutionizing video making with their tool that helps to create a video with ease and elegance. Isn’t that cool?

Video marketing will be a thing in 2019 as it can be used to promote your brand and increase its awareness. It is assumed that in 2019, internet video traffic will be almost 80% of the total traffic on the internet. If you are worried about if your video will reach people, you are all covered like 92% of the consumers who watch mobile videos share it with other people. Also, there are high chances that once the consumer has watched the video, he or she will make a purchase. Get ready with your video marketing content if you want to stay in the game in 2019!

Data analytics will be an essential skill for a journalist

As we all know that big data is becoming more and more important for companies and so is it for the journalists out there. The digital information that is now available is increasing, and as a journalist, you must know what to do with that knowledge. To become a good journalist, you must know how to become a knowledgeable data journalist. As a journalist in the 21st century, you should acquire the skills for gathering, interpreting, and visualizing digital data. The use of these digital tools has increased, and it is now essential for upcoming journalists to gain these skills.

When information is extracted, it will be in various formats, from which you must know how to gather all relevant information. There may be huge datasets of which you may only require some information so for that you will need to have data mining tools. Various other tools can then be used to visualize the data to get a better idea of the trends and patterns in the data.

Sanket Shah is the CEO and Founder of InVideo.io. InVideo helps you to transform your content into videos easily. 

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