• by Gerry Campbell , July 16, 2009

Pure print-based businesses are in a spiral of decline that only a new interactive approach can remedy. Also dead is the time when entire communities were guided by their evening news or waited to learn key details about events from tomorrow's morning headlines.

We've all known this to some degree for some time. We're witnessing an age where more than 100 million votes were cast on the final night of "American Idol," there are 175 million users on Facebook, and the Internet finally overtook newspapers as American's news outlet.

But what is really happening here?

Media has never been a static form -- it has followed a trajectory from cave paintings and papyrus scrolls, to the advent of the printing press to the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919. Today, with blogs and a constantly updating social stream, we publish information faster than ever, changing our perception of "current" and fueling an insatiable demand for up-to-the-second information.

Beyond this accelerated pace, we're witnessing a fundamental shift in casting roles. Media is no longer one (one reporter, one show, one company) talking at many. Rather, it's become a cacophony of public conversations. In short, the audience now participates.

Some can argue that this isn't a fundamental shift at all. We're getting back to the oldest form of communication and commerce, the town bazaar, which was the central source of social interaction, news, communication and influence for centuries.

However, today the audience has the ability to interact in real time, and on a global scale like never before.

Take the standard prime-time show. Families no longer sit back in the living room to watch "I Love Lucy." Now, we're voting whether Spencer and Heidi should remain in the jungle; we're voting for Adam Lambert or Kris Allen; and we're deciding who goes home on "Dancing with the Stars."

Participation isn't just limited to voting on reality shows. All over the Web, conversations are taking place about everything from TV to politics. We no longer wait to talk to our colleagues at work the next day. These conversations are happening in real time.

Whether in the form of Twitter posts, status updates, board posts, or blog comments, the Internet is abuzz as the NBA finals enfold. Sports nuts dissect every possible trade permutation as the seconds tick down on the NY Jets' draft pick. Fans try to make sense of Lost's season finale, as it happens.

These conversations turn TV programming from passive entertainment to a vibrant community. The feedback loop is nearly synchronous. We want to participate. We want to be heard. We want to matter.

No one has been impacted by this new dynamic more than the news media. Print, local and cable news outlets have all been forced to adapt. Traditional newsprint is not an interactive format. Take issue with an article? Your options are limited to a letter to the editor, which might appear in print a few days later. It's hard to envision anyone photocopying a newspaper clipping and mailing it anymore.

I believe it's these core interactive needs of sharing and expressing (not an unwillingness to pay subscription fees) that have driven print media to adopt a digital presence alongside print -- or in some drastic cases, drop the printing altogether.

On the Web, readers become participants. They can express their thoughts and opinions instantly, and share them with the entire community. Even those who don't comment get a richer sense of involvement by simultaneously viewing the discussion threads of fellow readers alongside the original article.

Television news has also needed to open its doors and yield more control to the audience. Some programs give the audience a say in the editorial process by voting on the stories that should be featured on air. One can't open a news channel's Web site without seeing a poll. In short, our news is looking less like a college lecture with one professor and many students and more like an engaging seminar where participation isn't just OK, it's required.

Local and cable channels are even warming up to the concept of the "citizen journalist" - encouraging (with the necessary safety caveats from legal) people to send in footage of a storm surge, wildfire, mudslide or car chase. And for good reason. News is happening everywhere, all the time. And with today's 24-hour news cycle, it's virtually impossible to stay on top of everything, given the finite pool of professional reporters.

What's the next generation of media going to be like?

Journalism will not be replaced altogether by Joe and his smartphone. Some topics require the credibility, gravitas, and due diligence of a credentialed reporter. However, it is true that big media will increasingly fall behind the microblogger and social network poster when it comes to delivering timely and localized information.

For the foreseeable future, the traditional reporter and microblogger will coexist in the news sphere -- and the key will be to bring the two together for a better perspective on what's happening.

Whether we're talking about news or entertainment, there's an explosion of new content in the digital universe. The next stage of media's evolutionary path will be to collect all these conversations and content side by side, then giving the audience the new ability to see, and more importantly to participate in, all these threads simultaneously.

Future broadcast media programming will incorporate the audience into the story -- and audience opinions will be expressed in many and varied venues.

Real-time search is the transformational force behind this next milestone and will impact the way we see breaking news, entertainment, brand mentions and more. For example, imagine the impact if a TV fan can find every discussion thread about his or her favorite show, while the show is unfolding, or a school administrator can follow updates on swine flu outbreaks as they happen.

Real-time search brings a new level of currency and context to events that will inevitably spark interaction at an even faster, broader, and more meaningful scale.