New media, new ecosystem

Abstract

In recent decades, technological advances have enabled the news to go farther, faster and to more consumers. The spatial and temporal constraints that had always affected the information sector lost their importance, opening a window of opportunity thanks to digitization and the internet massification. However, the promised potential quickly faded: the lack of investment, excessive voluntarism and the distance between media companies and research led the media industry to successive failures, with thousands of media closed worldwide. Today, there is no doubt that journalism is experiencing one of the worst periods in its history. It may sound strange that technological evolution has converted an opportunity into a difficulty, but it happened. Nonetheless, how can the process be reversed, transforming the current difficulty into the previous opportunity? This paper delivers some proposals that seek to explore the potential of mobile devices and looks towards these as an escape from the crisis that affects the media companies.