What does 2012 have in store for the media world? We outline our predictions here…
Journalism
* With the Leveson Enquiry continuing well into 2012, official regulation isn’t going to be needed to ensure every single paper and magazine asks itself serious ethical questions before publishing any story. Expect to see fewer investigations, fewer exposes (if any) and virtually no kiss and tell tales as legal worries stop many stories ever seeing the light of day. And if you are a journalist total transparency is the key to being successful in 2012. Be ready to double-check every fact, have every quote written in a notebook AND on tape and justify everything you write about – not to mention be ready to explain to an editor exactly where the story came from.
* The rise … and rise of real stories. With some celebrities bleating about their privacy being invaded by the very publications that gave them fame (we say papers and mags should give those celebs what they want and avoid printing anything on them) less will hopefully be written on them and more coverage will be given to actual news stories and those who want and deserve the publicity.
* The demise of libel lawyers. As papers and magazines exert ever tighter controls over copy, such as the introduction of corrections pages, lawyers who’ve specialised in defamation might find work a lot more scarce.
PR
* With the rise of DIY PR, anyone in public relations is going to have to work harder than ever and come up with very good results to justify their fees. No longer is it good enough to simply send a press release (which any savvy business owner can do themselves for free or a nominal cost) or even to simply build good relationships with journalists. Blatant PR is out. Gone are the days when any publication could be trusted to give any product or service a plug. More than ever, in 2012, PR consultants will need to find clever and subtle ways of promotion – of creating a buzz in a non-obvious way and of using the internet to do so (now just as important) – and giving clients results they simply couldn’t achieve themselves.
Book writing and publishing
* 2012 will continue to see the rise of the self-published fiction novel – and some new undiscovered authors finally being given the chance they deserve. With sales of Kindle rocketing, the book industry is going to change. For the past decade at least it’s been hard for any new author – however good he or she is – to get a look-in. Meanwhile, publishers have increasingly focused on ‘sure fire bets’ – celebrity endorsed books. But there are surely only so many celebrity cook books we can all fit into our bookshelves. And with Kindle people are developing different reading habits – such as browsing Amazon and not their local library. Then with internet downloads making reading a fiction novel so much cheaper, many people are rediscovering their simple love of a good story. With the power of social media such as Twitter and Facebook, many authors are also finding they don’t need a literary agent or even a mainstream publisher to get their book out there.
Blogging and the internet
With the power of Twitter and Facebook behind them, bloggers are finding not only are their posts being read but also how incredibly influential they can be. Bloggers with lots of followers will increasingly find advertisers beating a path to their door – and more than ever, anyone with a view will at last get it out there because on social media there is a ready made audience that will listen. in 2011 the power of bloggers and Twitter came to the fore with the Ryan Giggs affair – discussions on the internet which rendered an injunction pointless. And again if you wanted the latest on the riots you tuned into Twitter. Expect this trend to continue even more in 2012 as shared views on social media encourage individuals to bond even closer together.
Television continues to prove that it is still one medium that wields enormous influence into our every-day lives. With the advent of internet ready TVs, films that you can download onto your TV from the internet, the lines of internet and TV are becoming increasingly blurred. With catch-up on the internet mainstream television is also the one medium that has adapted to fit in with our modern viewing habits. And we all love our television – millions tuned in for the Royal wedding in 2011 and with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and Olympics in 2012, this is going to be another big, big year for enjoying the TV.
Finally … the internet will continue to exert its stranglehold on traditional forms of news, reading and media. If you haven’t gone on the web yet we believe it could be already too late. Anyone starting up in 2012 is going to find promotion on the net much harder as competition to gain a little piece of cyber-space becomes ever harder to do. We also predict 2012 will see more emphasis on ‘free’ content. Content on the internet is only set to improve as sites have to go that extra mile to beat the competition and get visitors to them. The internet is so vast – and Google is so refined at bringing up exactly what we are looking for on a search – that in 2012 no-one needs to pay for information anymore.
Do you agree with us? Do you have any predictions of your own on Journalism, PR, Publishing, Blogging and TV? If so let us know below…
