Kim Hollamby - Digital media

[Ewen]

Kim Hollamby raised a lot of good points. The digital development director of IPC Media espoused the concept of the professional journalist’s adaptation to new technologies. In this age of digital video getting downloaded direct to our optic nerves and blogs being posted telepathically, the idea of the traditional reporter can seem like a dead breed to tech heads.

The 30-something Gibsonites who had so cherished their well-thumbed copies of Neuromancer in their teens may bark objections at Hollamby’s idea that there’s still room for tradition despite the sparkling technophiliac world we apparently inhabit.

If any evidence were needed regarding the unreliability of technology one need only turn to exhibit a: the Stanley Parris lecture theatre. Youtube blues were apparent when Mr Hollamby couldn’t get his NME video to load in sufficient time to prove an effective demonstration.

He assures us that for every social networking success story such as Facebook or Myspace, there have been “1000 also-rans”, and that to succeed in the digital media market is a task requiring significant investment.

As journalists who may branch into online media, we are told that we are to face an audience that is transient, technophobic and lazy. Then again, people always say no one reads anymore anyway. Let's hope we can sway this fickle public to our cause.