The world is shifting rapidly.
According to British regulator, online platforms have overtaken broadcast television as the main source for news in that country.
This is a trend that we saw with the statement that X is the #1 source for news. Whether that is accurate or not, there is no doubt people are turning to social media as the source for what is going on.
The flipside of this is broadcast television, the previous top spot, is losing viewers. It is a situation that was evident for some time and is only accelerating.
We are also looking at dire financial consequences.
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The Internet As A News Source
For more than half a century, television was the dominant player in the news industry. It overtook newspapers a long time ago. This means that advertising dollars were mostly directed at this medium.
We are looking at billions of dollars.
This is a significant shift. Not only has TV dominated news for more than 60 years (a period when it overtook newspapers in popularity for news; that was the first blow for broadsheets), but also as online platforms replace broadcasters (and newspapers), the news they carry comes from a much wider set of sources. That’s both a blessing for having more viewpoints and a curse for being significantly harder to vet for accuracy — and consumers are concerned that this will only get worse with the growth of AI.
As they say, follow the money.
In this instance, the money is going to follow where the eyeballs are flowing to. Advertising dollars go where it can find people. When it comes to news, this is no longer the television networks.
Online platforms have now overtaken TV for the first time as the most popular resource for news among adult consumers, at 71% versus 70%, according to new research from U.K. communications regulator Ofcom.
This is something that is spreading throughout the world.
Part of this is simply a generational shift. As the Baby Boomers die off, the market for television watchers diminishes. The younger generations, especially GenZ were not reared on television. The idea of sitting in front of a new broadcast is not on their agenda.
What this means is the numbers are moving in the other direction.
My guess is the numbers above are as close as television is going to get to the Internet. The trend will widen the gap, just like it did with newspapers.
Web 3.0 Opportunity
Web 3.0 is more than just cryptocurrency. It is decentralization along with a host of other technologies. One of these is artificial intelligence.
At the moment there is a big debate about whether something was generated by a human or AI. In a few years, it will not matter.
We are not concerned that a website with statistics did the computations using AI. Do we get upset that the site didn't notify us the data was not calculated by a human?
Of course not. For the past 50 years, calculations were performed by machines since they excel versus humans.
Major news agency already use AI for stories. The level of the activity is debatable but we know this is becoming a larger piece of content creation.
Why would this slow down?
One of the key distinctions between the next generation Internet and the present one (Web 2.0) is the use of artificial intelligence. It is going to be interwoven in everything.
Web 3.0 as the opportunity to establish networks that fill the needs that people have. It is something that we see missing at the moment. However, if platforms want to succeed, they need to bring this content to it.
We already see the summary of news items by the likes of Google cropping up. That company uses AI to take the stories, summarize them, and place them in the search results. This is a powerful way to give people a glimpse of what is going on as they scroll through.
This makes a lot of sense since newspapers and magazines, for years, conditioned us to skim the headlines. That was the most important part of the article.
Networks are dependent upon eyeballs. This is no different than the television world. However, there is the potential to provide so much more than just broadcasts. Here is where technology companies have a huge advantage.
A Plethora Of Offerings
The top digital platforms, Web 3.0 or otherwise, will provide a wide range of offerings to people. This is a crucial component to understand.
We no longer are living in a period where social media is the dominant force. This is going to be replaced by AI. This means that platforms have to offer a host of services for its network participants.
Naturally, this includes the news.
Broadcast television can only offer entertainment. That is where it is restricted. It lacks the ability to providing gaming, engagement, financial services, or content creation tools. All of these are available online.
Broadcast television is still a passive, one-way relationship. All information flows from the television to the viewer. We live in a world where two-way interaction if the norm.
Hence why the demise of television news is guaranteed. Habits have changed and it is incapable of keeping pace.