Is the iPhone 14 a Game Changer?
If you want to understand where the news business is going, you need to look no further than the technology.
If you want to understand where the news business is going, you need to look no further than the technology.
News, as a business, is a pure child of technology.
Medicine, law, architecture, construction, art, and commerce all existed for thousands of years. They are natural human endeavors. New technologies came along that improved the basic practice of any of those fields. Microscopes and antibiotics (among many other things) improved the practice of medicine. Law has existed since the Code of Hammurabi; art since early humans drew on the walls of the Caves of Lascaux.
But when it comes to the news business, it is a relative newcomer and a pure child of technology.
The recent death of Queen Elizabeth was a poignant reminder of just how recent the news ‘business’ is.
On her death, a very interesting ceremony was held — the official ‘Proclamation’ of the death of the Queen. Official documents were read to the public across the country to announce the Queen’s death.
This is a very ancient procedure and one that is resonant in a world without media. This was how news was delivered — from the Crown to the people.
The invention of the printing press in 1450 was the first technological game changer, taking power to promulgate ‘news’ from the Crown and giving it to the public.
When it came to television, our most powerful medium for news, the power to publish, hence to promulgate news, was entirely in the hands of large corporations, whether it was The BBC or CBS or NBC — because it was so complicated and expensive. And still, it was the very few deciding what the ‘masses’ should know — or not know.
But, as with all things media related, it is the technology that decides; the industry follows.
Last week, Apple released its iPhone 14, the latest iteration of its smartphones.
When the first iPhone was released in 2007, then-CEO Steve Jobs announced that it was three things in one — a phone, an iPod for music, and a connection to the Internet. He failed to mention that it had a camera, which made all the difference.
The new iPhone shoots a rather astonishing 4K for video — that is 4 times HiDef, or broadcast quality video. How good is that?
Here’s a 2017 ad for a RED, a very high-end professional video camera. $80,000 but, the ad notes, it does shoot in 4K!!
What happens when a few billion people worldwide have a 4K camera in their pocket all the time? Probably, the nature of who gets to make news (and films, for that matter) is going to change.
A lot.
