As I watched the trending news on the COVID-19, I stopped for a moment and thought about the challenges we have been facing globally. We have been experiencing lockdowns and other forms of restrictions contributing to fundamental changes in mass communication and media in general. I am a journalist, but here I am, staring at my laptop in the comfort of my home. I move around my house from morning to evening, and at the end of the day, I ensure that I have delivered the news as expected by the employer. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to changing of my house into a newsroom. Like other journalists, I work remotely using online collaborations such as Slack and Zoom ( Gloviczki, 2020) . As I continued with my imaginations, I realized that the future that I desire is not promising. I thought we would return to face-to-face journalism with the discovery of coronavirus vaccination, but with the severity of the third wave, I need to brace myself for further working remotely. The mass communication industry will continue to embrace technology in creating newspapers, TV and radio news, and websites from the employees’ kitchens, bedrooms, and living room.
The future of mass communication areas such as newsrooms will base their reporting on specialization soon. COVID-19 has made most reporters realize that they understand very little about technology and science. During the initial stages of COVID-19 and even at the moment, the information about the crisis was provided by the specialists in medicine. The reporters, news anchors, and the content creator had a limited understanding of the information. I expect the emergence of a breed of journalists that addresses priority subjects in different fields rather than the current journalism obsessed with personality politics ( Gloviczki, 2020) . I also view that the industry will shift from direct journalist narrations of events to visual and data storytelling formats. On most of my reporting occasions, I have never experienced an explanation of complex like at the moment. Everything I did was based on traditional journalism like other people. With the advent of the pandemic, data journalism will emerge. Most people in mass communication will consider breaking away from traditional narrative to explore pathways in the news industry. The industry will also use visual content like story format, especially in mass communication areas that publish their information on social platforms.
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The government regulations on mass communication will also continue to be quite strict. Public broadcasters and website content creators have been facing constant attacks from government organizations. My wishful thinking is to see the government supporting the media to promote press freedom and creativity, but unfortunately, I am wrong. I learned recently how giant organizations had to rethink free speech ( Gloviczki, 2020) . With the lives of most journalists and other mass communication producers at stake and under threat of regulations, I expect more interventions to curb the spread of the so-called ‘unreliable and harmful content’ from the government. In the coming days, the number of mass media employees will decrease due to harsh government regulations, threats, and restrictions.
Mass communication will accelerate the shift to paid content. As the disease continues to affect and keep most people at home, the only way to deal with boredom is to subscribe to online news and entertainment and engage in other forms of reader payment. More people will subscribe to video streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Netflix ( Gloviczki, 2020) . Since face-to-face activities such as watching a live band or movies in the auditorium have been affected by restrictions, most mass communication organizations will consider developing their online platforms. Business in mass communication was affected, and thus, most are experiencing a reduction in revenue. As such, the organization will consider creating a channel that can enable their customers to subscribe to their services to survive in the industry.
Mass communication in 2021 and beyond will also experience radical technology experimentations. The companies will engage in innovations that emphasize better user experience and design. The competition is increasing in digital platforms. Thus, most organizations will consider experimenting with innovative practices such as designing platforms with greater potential to improve user experience and subscriber lifecycle. Organizations such as Amazon are a good benchmark for new organizations to learn the digital business that focuses on customer experience ( Gloviczki, 2020) . The mass communication businesses will focus more on suitable innovation. The rate of change caused by coronavirus has done most businesses in the industry to experience burnout. For instance, the heat of the crisis has made it harder for organizations to neither shutdown nor start all over again. Such dilemmas need the mass communication industry to find better ways to manage and coordinate processes. The industry will create a consistent innovative framework for continuous change that will shape new initiatives and orchestrate agile service delivery.
Progressing in mass communication entails rethinking the opportunities and challenges that the industry will achieve or might face even after the pandemic. The industry’s revenue has been affected most, especially in the companies that concentrated mainly on mainstream news platforms. Despite that each worker or business desires to resume the normal lifestyle before COVID-19, the lessons learned should propel future sustainable measures ( Gloviczki, 2020) . The mass media companies should consider utilizing sustainable technology and creating online businesses that allow for content streaming, like in the case of Netflix, as an essential part of their daily commercial activity.
Reference
Gloviczki, P. J. (2020). The Future That Awaits Us. Journal of Loss and Trauma , 25 (8), 673-674. https://doi.org/10.1080/15325024.2020.1780775
