W8. Task 1. Who cares about Digital Immigration? (2)

Another context in which digital immigration was mentioned was by Rupert Murdoch in a speech in 2005.

He made the point that digitality is changing the face of journalism. There is a whole generation who access news in a completely different way, preferring online methods as they are deemed to be more entertaining, flexible and even trustworthy. This is bad news for owners of traditional paper newspapers, like Murdoch himself, as readership is rapidly falling.

To combat this trend Murdoch suggests that digital natives,

“…want to be able to use the information in a larger community – to talk about, to debate, to question, and even to meet the people who think about the world in similar or different ways.” (http://www.newscorp.com/news/news_247.html)

His main priority seems to be the re-dsistrubution of advertising revenues, with it now increasingly going to web-sites rather than newspapers. Murdoch has obviously noted this, and true to his reputation as a savvy businessman, will be the first to get his hands on the cash potential that is news online through taking advantage of people’s need to create a cyber society in which thoughts and information can be shared instantaneously across vast distances. (Steve Jones)