What will media and journalism look like in the future? Will the journalistic profession survive or will it be supplanted by artificial intelligence? These and similar questions will be pondered by participants at the fourth Media Studies and Perspectives Conference entitled “Media and journalism of the future”, which will be held on 15th and 16th of May this year at the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication of the University of Wrocław.
The first decades of the 21st century revolutionised the world of media, changing both their social role and, perhaps most importantly, the ways in which they are used. It seems, however, that further revolutionary changes in the media are only a matter of time. The coming years will certainly definitely modify the social functioning of the media and their forms. The direction of change will certainly not only concern the declining position of print media, displaced by electronic media, or the increasingly declining position of traditional television, replaced by streaming platforms.
The media of the future will be increasingly interactive, personalised, but also dependent on capital and business considerations. The position and role of the journalist will certainly also change significantly. The question as to whether the journalist of the future will be needed at all or whether he or she will be supplanted by applications based on artificial intelligence, which will be able to sufficiently cope with the tasks hitherto performed by journalists, is not without reason. However, if the journalistic profession survives, it is necessary to ask what form it will take and what competences will be necessary for the journalistic profession of the future. This is a relevant question if only from the perspective of the education of future media professionals.
Translated by Wiktoria Łakoma (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
