Stuart Washington says technology is transforming journalism but just how our future media will look is still unknown.

The massive cuts to Fairfax and News Limited is part of the worldwide trend pitting newspapers against online media.

But what will bloggers and twitterers “link” to if traditional media is decimated? Who will fund investigative journalism? And will opinion be reduced to the “comments” section of blogs where extreme views and abuse proliferate?

International digital businesses like Google, Apple and Facebook are radically changing (and profiting) from the new media landscape yet pay minimal tax rates. Google paid just $74,000 in taxes in Australia last year despite $1 billion in revenue, while traditional media companies are struggling to stay afloat as their advertising clients drift to the cheaper and trackable world of online.

Fairfax journalist Stuart Washington tells 3Q his concerns about the brave new digital world.

First Published on The Drum 14/12/2010

Here is the word cloud that will prick a thousand egos – and restore some reality to the debate about the future of the media.

In an era of celebrity journos building Twitter empires and media business models inspired by the porn industry, the truth is that very few members of the public have any idea who is writing or reporting their daily news.

That’s what Essential Research found while working with the Media Alliance’s Future of Journalism Project – when asked to name  a journalist, the vast majority of respondents could come up with only one name: ‘Don’t Know’.

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