News and mobile metaphors

I suppose it may have something to do with using my smartphone more over the holiday period, but I have been thinking for some time now about the much talked about crisis in journalism and the fact that most news is now consumed via mobile devices.

Is this a crisis of journalism or a crisis of chronically outdated business models? One thing is true: the absence of mobile platform proposals exposes the fact that at a time when technology offers more and better tools to carry out journalism as well as to distribute it to more an more potential users, the businesses that have traditionally dominated the sector have not come up with any new ideas, and any innovation that has taken place has been introduced by newcomers.

I am not aware of much work going on to develop new presentation metaphors for smartphones. It seems clear that the way we access information via a screen measuring four inches by two that we hold in our hand while using our thumb to scroll or click on what we want to see is going to be different from a tablet or a computer, but I have yet to see an interface design that makes me think, “yes, this is what was needed all along.”

At the same time, I think it is important to “dignify” smartphone screens that that they can be used for more than just consulting information quickly, something that I can only imagine by using metaphors based on layers: my impression is that a smartphone news interface has to be based on a few actions that enable the user to find out quickly, easily, and simply what has happened, but that must also offer the chance to “go deeper” into something of interest, providing access both to the back story as well as to other sources via aggregation (yes, that activity that has so much to contribute to an eco-system characterized by hyper-abundance of information, but that many of our governments are determined to prevent, to the benefit of traditional media).

Is it really so difficult to conceptualize a way of presenting information that is sufficiently visual and attractive for a smartphone screen, but that allows the user to dig deeper into the story should he or she want to? I am convinced that an interface of this kind, combined with a well-thought-out social strategy — incentivizing sharing of information and facilitating interaction — along with certain business models, could lead to the creation of new structures that would help journalists, and allow them to see the fruits of their work in much greater analytical detail, avoid sensationalism through appropriate management, and provide a service that the user would appreciate sufficiently to pay for. But instead, it seems that journalism prefers to continue ignoring the changes taking place around it, and is sticking to models that are clearly unsustainable or useless, and making life harder than ever for journalists with a minimum of vocation.

When a certain technology undergoes rapid and consistent adoption, all the efforts of those affected by it should be directed to adapting to the new scenario that this technology is defining. But whichever way you look at it, this is not what journalism is doing. Instead of investigating these new metaphors, or thinking about usability as the next great frontier and enabling journalists to make the most of this new scenario, the people who control the industry are still printing on paper, believing blindly that they still have a future, while many journalists still see the internet as the enemy.

Better times will come, but other people will lead them.

(En español, aquí)