By Kwami Ahiabenu, II.
News business started in Ghana, then Gold Coast, when The Gold Coast Gazette and Commercial Intelligencer, was
born in1822-25 by Sir Charles MacCarthy, governor of the British Gold
Coast settlements. Along came broadcasting on 31st July 1935 when Gold Coast
Broadcasting System was commissioned. Over time media in Ghana has
bloomed with a plethora of news outlets, booming social media and mobile
channels providing countless news opportunities to growing audience
base.
According to National Communications Authority
(NCA) Ghana, as at 2015 there are 58 registered television stations in
Ghana, 390 radio stations are registered and a projected 40 newspapers.
The
rapid growth and falling costs of new digital technologies and tools
has opened the door for new opportunities in news delivery in particular
and journalism as a whole. Formerly, internet access was glued to
computers but in present times, we are going through a phase of
“internet of things” where multiple devices from tablets to
refrigerators are connected to the Internet. This has had a profound
implication not only for the way news is produced by also consumed as
well.
In order to stimulate debate and map the
trajectory of the news of future, Penplusbytes in association with
Multimedia Group and Graphic corporation is holding, for the first time
in Ghana, a landmark event on the “future of news” in August 2015.
Ahead of this event we present a series of blog posts discussing key
issues related to the future of news. In this first in the series, we
take a look at Wearable News and Augmented Reality Journalism.
Wearable
news refers to the delivering of news using wearable devices such
clothing and accessories which contains computing and advanced
electronic technologies including wearable cameras, watches and glasses
to name a few. Simply put; instead of sitting at home and watch
television, you can now have same content delivered to you via glasses
on the go.
According to Gartner Inc. (http://www.gartner.com)
“By 2017, mobile apps will be downloaded more than 268 billion times,
generating revenue of more than $77 billion and making apps one of the
most popular computing tools for users across the globe.. As a result,
they predict that mobile users will provide personalized data streams to
more than 100 apps and services every day”. Also, it pointed out that,
“Wearable devices will use mobile apps as their conduit for data
exchange and user interface because many of them will have few or no
user interface capabilities. Offloading that responsibility to the
mobile device means the wearable devices will depend on apps for all
types of user input or output, configuration, content creation and
consumption, and in some cases, basic connectivity.”
Furthermore Gartner
predicts that by 2018, “more than 25 million head-mounted displays
(HMDs) will have been sold as immersive devices and virtual worlds will
have transitioned from the fringe to the mainstream”.
This
mind blowing statistics presents a fertile ground for newsrooms to
create content which can be consumed on the go by users of wearable
technologies. Producing content for wearable technologies is not
business as usual. Journalists must develop new story telling skills
which allows them to produce and deliver content to users who are on the
move thereby making location very critical in terms what news they
consume. A news consumer stuck in a long traffic due to a collapsed
bridge on his or her route will be interested to find out news about
state of repair etc. of this bridge and news about global food prices
may not be top of his agenda.
A related technology is Augmented Reality (AR)
which provides us with live news indirect or direct of our physical
world environment whose elements are supplemented (augmented) by using
new digital technologies and generated sensory input such Geographical
Position System (GPS) data, video, graphics or sound. Using a
combination of hardware such as processor, display, sensors, input
devices, and display units such as head mounted display (HMD),
Eyeglasses, Head-up display (HUD) among others. AR is supported by
software and algorithms which derive its source from real world images
from camera, processed it and deliver it to user.
A
related concept to AR is mediated reality, which using new digital
technologies, a view of reality is modified by either amplifying or
diminishing it. In this direction, mediated reality technologies
function by enhancing one’s current perception of reality where virtual
reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. For example, using
AR technology when one is watching football on TV during a live match,
one can be fed with information about the match and more importantly the
user can interact and digital change information as well since
artificial information about the match is overlaid by the ongoing match.
For
newsrooms, this is more than magic, ability to mash up news with more
relevant information which information hungry audiences are looking for
can ensure they stand relevant and influential in terms of delivering
what content their targets need in a more interactive manner.
It
is important to point out that, wearable news and augmented reality
journalism is now taking baby steps in some newsrooms around the world,
so it does not come as a surprise that newsrooms in Ghana are yet to
experiment with some of these futuristic news production and delivery
formats. A number of reasons account for this situation, there is a
dearth of skills when it comes to the deploying of such technologies let
alone the skills set needed to tell compelling stories in this emerging
formats. Also, some of these tools are very expensive and beyond the
reach of not only the journalists but also the consumers who will need
these tools in order to consume news in this format. Ghana as a whole is
falling behind, not only in the creation of the software but also the
hardware needed to drive the growth and development of this type of
innovative sorry telling format. Furthermore, revenue models needed to
sustain the uptake of these innovations are still work in progress
making it somewhat difficult for newsroom editors and owners to justify
taking a leap of faith in undertaking this type of projects.
Some
have even argued that challenges of newsroom in Ghana are very
rudimentary, therefore it will be prudent to solve them first before
venturing into this fairly complex means of news production and
distribution. But one can counter argue that we could as well leapfrog
and make use of some of these technologies to solve these challenges
while growing the media sector and even become leaders in this area.
ENDS
****As
part of its Future of News Event in August, Penplusbytes, a leader in
new media & innovations; tech & good governance, and mining, oil
& Gas, is pleased to release a series of future of news articles.
This inaugural article takes a look at “Wearable News and Augmented
Reality Journalism.”
Watch out for next article in series: “Death of Newspaper- myth or reality.”
Follow @penplusbytes for updates. #futureofnews
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