Home, Tube or Office? It's the Moment that Decides Which Media we Use

• The Internet has dramatically changed our media landscape
• Television is largely being replaced as the dominant medium
• What is read/seen/heard is decided by the moment, not the user's educational level
• Content is becoming "fluid": Stories are becoming detached from the medium
• Journalists are becoming content curators
• Active media users participate in "telling the story"

These are the key results of an analysis carried out by Zukunftsinstitut on behalf of the Telekom Austria Group in the run up to this year's future.talk, entitled "Brave News World: Why newsmakers and newstakers change."

"Almost no other area has been more affected by the digital revolution than the media world. The amount of time we spend using media is constantly increasing, as traditional media such as newspapers, TV and radio are rapidly losing their shares of the overall market. The Internet is the main driver of this growth. But digitalisation is also raising interesting questions in regards to media production, media usage and also the dissemination of content. At this year's future.talk, we will discuss the effects that these developments are having on society", says Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of the Telekom Austria Group.

Television is "out" among "digital champions"

According to the A1 study of residential customers, Austrians on average spend just over three hours per day online (11 % of which is on mobile phones). Among younger users, mobile phones and the Internet have long since replaced television as the dominant medium¹. This is also demonstrated by the extremely high figures among the "digital champions" (on average 29 years old, male, approx. 6 % of the total adult population)², who spend 7.3 hours per day online and who also regard the Internet as their chief source of information.

The end of categorisation: It's the moment that determines the choice of the media

The central thesis put forward by the Zukunftsinstitut is that the situation in which we use the media determines our choice of media. Social and educational background are becoming less important. Users can no longer be categorised according to rigid demographic criteria. Classification in clearly definable target groups is a thing of the past. Ubiquitous Internet access offers a multitude of opportunities to keep abreast of events in almost any location in the world, in almost any situation – at home at the breakfast table or on-the-go on a train – and on a variety of devices. The mix of media that people use depends to a large extent on their location, the devices that are available, the time of day and the amount of time they have at any particular moment for media consumption. According to Matthias Horx, the futurist and trend researcher who founded the Zukunftsinstitut, "the trend is moving strongly – above all on the go – toward diffusion media. Such media primarily provide entertainment, but also offer a quick overview and communicate to the users that, 'Everything is alright. The world is still standing'." This can be online news pages or the news stream put together on social media like Facebook or Twitter. The red thread, however, remains the same. If the user wants to concentrate completely on the content, then he turns to so-called focus media: People then use "slow media" such as books, documentary films or high-quality print media.

No beginning and no end: "fluid" stories & and disempowerment of the dominant players

"Nowadays we are dealing with a highly differentiated media landscape, in which the dominant players are increasingly losing power and influence. The big stories that concern people are told by many different media and are available through a wide range of channels", says Matthias Horx. The stories become fluid, can be moved, supplemented, changed, broadened, split. Horx sums all this up under the heading "Liquid Media". Accordingly he postulates that, "media content is becoming liquid. The power of the dominant media is decreasing." Hannes Ametsreiter adds: "The future lies in seamless content. If in the evening you get tired watching your favourite series and move off the sofa and into bed, you'll finish watching the programme in bed; without having to look for anything or load it again, let alone miss even a second."

The "audience" helps tell the story

The boundaries between the types of media are becoming blurred. Readers, listeners and viewers are becoming interactive users who actively intervene in the story. This leads Horx to another thesis. "Journalists are losing their monopoly as news experts. Today, every individual and every company has the possibility to produce content and disseminate it online. Access to the means of production is easy and cheap, and there are no restrictions in terms of the number of pages or broadcasting times. Nowadays it is also easily possible to use several media at the same time. The second screen is now standard for many people. They search for additional information using laptops, smartphones and tablets while watching a television programme or discuss the content of the broadcast with others on social networking platforms. In Austria 22 % of Internet users are online at the same time as they watch television and among users below the age of 29 the figure rises to 27 %.³ Thus the audience makes a direct contribution to telling the story. This leads to the next theory: As a result of these new possibilities, a new form of 'hybrid journalism' is emerging.

The new role of journalists: From producer to curator

Although increasing numbers of people are producing content and thus doing something that in the past was mainly done by journalists, the role of the journalist is far from becoming obsolete, Horx explains. It is merely changing. Given the abundance of content that is being placed online, there is a need for trained media experts who can filter, evaluate and edit it along specific topics. The greater the number of different players, some of whom are publishing content around very specific interests, the more important it is to have people who can put it all in a larger context. The corresponding thesis is therefore: "Curating content will become journalists' new main task." And it is in this respect that technology is extremely helpful to them, for new tools, such as Storify, simplify the process of connecting content with a specific topic and editing it.

Conclusion: Success comes to those who gain the attention of users on all channels

Based on these five theses, Horx has produced a prognosis for the future of the media and says, "the primary resource in the evolution of the media is the attention of the user. The media must succeed in keeping their users riveted across all channels. Media firms that manage to offer both entertainment and exciting content for focused use under the umbrella of a powerful brand are the ones that will be successful in tomorrow's media world."

Help shape the future of the media

Especially in the field of the news and media, modern technologies offer a host of opportunities that are not yet being used. Just as increasing numbers of people are participating in telling the story, as Matthias Horx described, more people should make an active contribution to shaping the media world. "The transformation of the media offers a wealth of opportunities that can take us forward as a society. On 23 September we want to discuss them, together with Arianna Huffington, the President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post, and our guests at future.talk 2014," concludes Hannes Ametsreiter.

Further information about future.talk 2014 can be found on http://www.futuretalk.com

About the Analysis

The study was carried out in 2014 by Zukunftsinstitut Austria on behalf of the Telekom Austria Group on the basis of a detailed secondary data analysis. The results and conclusions derived from the study were analysed in the context of large-scale social change – the mega-trends. The basis was a study on the future of the media published by Zukunftsinstitut in 2013.

About Zukunftsinstitut

Zukunftsinstitut was founded in 1998 and from the very outset has significantly shaped trend research and futurology in Germany. Today, the institute is considered to be one of the most influential think tanks in European trend research and futurology. The question with which we grapple each day is a simple one: Which changes – which trends and mega-trends – are shaping our present and which conclusions can be drawn for the future of society, business and culture? The answers are sometimes complex, but we always make it our task to make this change comprehensible, to moderate it and to see the future as a chance.

For further information see: http://www.zukunftsinstitut.de

¹ See also studies from Germany: http://www.hans-bredow-institut.de/webfm_send/730 and http://www.hans-bredow-institut.de/webfm_send/734
² According to the study of A1 residential customers, 70% of digital champions are male and the average age is 29. This segment comprises approximately 425,000 people.
³ Source: Mobile Communication Report 2014, N= 1.004, May to June 2014