Imagining
the newsroom
of tomorrow
Johannes Gutenberg wanted to get rich quick. Born in Germany at the turn of the 15th century, he grew up in a world in which book publishing was a painstaking endeavor. Looking for a way to make the process more efficient—and lucrative—he created a novel method of printing. He replaced wooden blocks that had to be hand-carved for each page with a process that used individual metal pieces that could be endlessly rearranged and reused, allowing for much faster and more efficient production. Although he never lived to see the success of his creation, it set something transformative in motion. The printing press he designed would lead to an explosion in the volume of written works, setting the stage for print journalism as we know it today.
Gutenberg’s invention was only the beginning. Since then, technology and journalism have proven to be inextricably linked, with groundbreaking communication technologies—like the printing press, and later the telegraph, radio, TV and the internet—driving the evolution of news. Today, the industry is on the cusp of another evolution, with a new technology—5G—poised to deliver ultra-fast speeds and up to 10X less latency (nearly imperceptible lag time), which could enable an exciting array of storytelling formats and dramatically change the way news is delivered.
Writing the future ofnews
Much has been written about how 5G will one day revolutionize high-tech industries from robotics to healthcare, but perhaps one of the places where we’ll see nearer-term impact is in the media business.
Newsrooms have already had to adapt to an increasingly connected world by finding new, digital-first ways to tell stories and engage with their audiences. As readers demand more content faster than ever, media companies are constantly improving the user experience, producing multimedia content such as video and audio specifically for mobile formats and publishing across various platforms to reach readers where they are.
Now, with the rollout of 5G accelerating, news organizations are on the verge of another paradigm shift. The network promises to deliver faster and faster data processing speeds—with 5G using millimeter wave spectrum, you could download an entire movie onto your smartphone in mere seconds.
“More robust data processing opens the door for all kinds of eventual opportunities,” said Shiraz Hasan, vice president, global channel marketing & sales operations at AT&T Business. “Imagine, for example, a news app that utilizes digital voice assistance to allow users to ask a question specific to an article and get an answer in near real-time.”
recent past
5g era
But 5G is about more than data capacity. The cellular network will also be able to connect potentially millions of devices beyond phones (known as mass connectivity) and eventually deliver ultra-low latency, innovations that could help journalists create dynamic new storytelling experiences. Think immersive experiences created with emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) that let readers engage more deeply with a story.
“Imagine users can witness firsthand, through VR, the sheer devastation caused by the Australian bush fires,” Hasan noted. “Voters could use VR to touch and play with graphic representations of election data.” With 5G, he explains, the data-intensive visuals at the heart of these experiences could eventually be downloaded and rendered much faster and more seamlessly.
“In VR especially, the feeling of ‘being there’ hits very strong with well-conceived and executed nonfiction pieces,” said Deepak Chetty, who works as a director, XR specialist and assistant professor of practice at The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Radio-Television-Film. “This can enhance many aspects of a user’s experience, understanding, empathy and appreciation of a narrative.”
Of course, AR and VR aren’t exactly new. Journalists have been experimenting with these emerging technologies over the last few years, but so far the experiences have been constrained by the current network’s bandwidth, compute power and latency limitations. Instead of feeling seamless, current VR experiences can feel choppy and unrealistic.
recent past
5g era
5G will eventually change that. With the network’s increased capacity, newsrooms will be able to “rely on their projects not being compromised in regard to lower available data transmission,” Chetty added. “To me, this is the greatest rejuvenating aspect of it.”
In addition to reimagining digital storytelling, 5G could also enhance AI technology for information gathering and user interaction. In the future, a journalist may be able to research facts for a story using a voice-activated smart speaker, and consumer-facing news briefings on these devices could become more personalized, immersive and immediate.
“With increased data rates, 5G will encourage applications that are inherently bandwidth hungry,” said Babak D. Beheshti, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences at the New York Institute of Technology. “These applications include much faster upload and download speeds for high-definition video, autonomous vehicles, augmented reality and virtual reality, IoT, and many more.”
A new era inmedia
Some media companies are already beginning to prepare for this new era. The Washington Post, for example, is working with AT&T Business to explore how nationwide 5G can enhance coverage of the 2020 presidential election and other major news events.
An experimental storytelling lab, created in partnership with The Post and AT&T Business, will explore how next generation communication technologies can help with immersive activations and storytelling for the election and other news topics.
“Immersive, mixed-reality activations can draw people into news events and make people feel like they’re almost part of the story,” Hasan noted. “And this is just the beginning. We’ll continue to take learnings from across our business verticals—whether its healthcare or manufacturing or sports broadcasting—and look for ways to apply them in the journalism context.”
recent past
5g era
As 5G and 5G-enabled devices become more readily available, media organizations will have the opportunity to unlock new and exciting capabilities that haven’t yet been imagined—and that could entirely change our perception of news. With The Post serving as a living, breathing adopter of this groundbreaking new technology over the next year, we’ll provide a close-up view as these possibilities come to life.
“5G promises ultimately to be a revolutionary force in transforming the technology landscape, how we live and play, and how many industries operate,” Beheshti said.
If the past is any indication, that will include the news industry.