Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 74 M O N TA N A i n NEWSPAPERS SO THE YEAR IS 2049 AND YOU ARE READY FOR THE NEWS OF THE DAY. IN WHAT FORM DID YOU RECEIVE IT, AND JUST WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? I'm 61 now, so in 30 years I'm probably getting it intravenously. Seriously, it's impossible to know, but I'm guessing news junkies will get fixes constantly and throughout the day from a number of sources, many of which we can't possibly imagine. I'm already amazed at how omnipresent the news is today. It comes over my phone, computer, TV, car radio, from social media platforms to that quaint stuff we call email, and from several online newspapers. e need to understand what's happening down the street or across the world isn't going to lessen, and I'm confident future technology will bring news in even more ingenious ways. Microchip implants? Google goggles? With everything that's being tried or talked about, nothing sounds terribly far-fetched. YOU HAVE BEEN BOTH A NEWSPAPER REPORTER AND AN EDITOR. HOW WILL EMPLOYMENT IN THE FIELD OF JOURNALISM EVOLVE OVER THE NEXT 30 YEARS? I don't think the demand for news will wane. So, it's reason- able to assume we'll need smart people to provide it. Given trends I see, companies are going to get smarter and more sophisticated with marketing and public relations. But so will ordinary people, who I suspect are going to be suspicious of all that. Journalistic values such as verification and transparency will be critical to the credibility of future information providers, no matter for whom or what they work. e newspapers I started my career with were like factories, in which a few people gathered and edited news and photos and dozens of others handled specialties: advertising, pro- duction and distribution. I don't expect that to change in essence, even as the platforms do, though news organizations may replace some people with technology. Future journalism, like everything, will be more data-driven, but recent experience hasn't convinced me that algorithms do a great job of sifting truth from bunk, not to mention securing users' data. To the detriment of the news, we've already lost too many editors. THOMAS JEFFERSON VIEWED NEWSPAPERS AS A PEACEABLE ALTERNA- TIVE TO REVOLUTION. MOST PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY AGREE THAT NEWSPAPERS FILL A CRITICALLY IMPORTANT CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY FOR OVERSIGHT OF DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS. CAN OUR VARIOUS LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT FUNCTION RESPONSIBLY WITH LIMITED OR NO NEWS- PAPER OVERSIGHT? We'll always need people dedicated to seeking truth and report- ing it, especially when it's inconvenient or unpopular. We'll always need people committed to serving an audience or a community, instead of just chasing clicks. Governments and other powerful institutions that influence our lives need to be held accountable. Robust, independent news organizations, with the credibility to counter lies and to tell us counterintuitive truths, are essential. WITH THE ADVENT OF "FAKE NEWS," HOW BEST CAN NEWSPAPERS BUILD READER TRUST AND REGAIN THEIR POSITION AS RELIABLE AND TRUTHFUL NEWS OUTLETS? News organizations can rededicate themselves to the values of verification and transparency and work harder to help communi- ties solve real problems—not merely joust at the mirages created by fear-mongers. at won't be easy because the problem of false in- formation is something everyone needs to address, not just journal- ists. It's a problem for scientists, economists—every area of study. Research shows people tend to believe false information if they see yea rs 3

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