Tom Standage, the Economist - Media Connected

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Why technology journalism matters

Tom Standage, The Economist

January 17th 2009


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Introduction

Tom Standage: Business Editorand Technology QuarterlyEditor,

The Economist


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Introduction

About The Economist

Global news weekly

Circulation: 1.4m56% of readers in North America

31% in Europe; 10% in Asia

2% in Middle East & Africa


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Introduction

Why I am a technology journalist

The future is already here its

just unevenly distributed.-- William Gibson

And I get to talk to the worlds

cleverest people


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Introduction

1. The past: How tech journalismhas changed

2. The present: How we do itat The Economist

3. The future: Where techjournalism is going


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1. The past: How tech

journalism has changed


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1. How tech journalism has changed

Two big stories in the past 15

years have made tech journalismmore important than ever:

The rise of the internet

The spread of mobile phones


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The internet has affected almost

every aspect of human life:business, politics, social life

(It has changed journalism, too)

The internet makes computersuseful to almost everyone


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The internets rise created strong

demand for people to explain it

Economistreaders consistentlyasked for more coverage of itsimpact on business

My route into journalism in 1994!


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Tech journalists went fromwriting about gadgets

to being expected to commenton privacy, censorship, telecomsregulation, competition policy,

intellectual property, etc


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Many early debates have been

resolved, and real-world laws andrules have largely been imposedon the internet

Journalists helped to frame the

debate and influence the outcome,if only by explaining things


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Nobody still thinks the internetcan be turned off

It is understood that carriers andISPs are not responsible for theirusers actions


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Unresolved internet debates:

Net neutrality

Behavioural targetingTerrorists/Google Earth

We still have work to do


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The spread of mobile phones

has affected more people thanthe rise of the internet

The internet supplemented otherforms of communication for most

users; mobile phones oftenprovide access for the first time


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Mobile phones have direct

impact on economic activity:

Substitute for poor infrastructure

(shop in Afghanistan)Price discovery, market access(fishermen in Kerala)

New uses: mobile banking(M-PESA in Kenya)


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An extra 10 mobile phones per100 people in a typical

developing country leads to anextra 0.6 percentage points inGDP growth. (Waverman,

London Business School, 2005)


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All governments claim to be

pro-growth and pro-connectivity

But not all of them have the rightpolicies in place to promote thespread of mobile phones


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Private firms will build networks if

they are given the chance

$230 billion invested in telecoms

infrastructure in the developingworld,1993 - 2003 (World Bank)

Not big Western firms: local

champions such as Orascom,Investcom, MTN, etc


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Deregulation is key

Ethiopia: 1.4% (one operator)

DRC: 10.5% (four operators)But comparable GDP per capita

Somalia 7% (no government!)


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Governments also impose

luxury taxes on handsets,hindering adoption

But done right, mobile telecomscan be a big contributor of taxes

(14% in Afghanistan)


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Unlike with the internet, there is

not a thirst to have this explained.But it is important

Technology overlaps witheconomics, regulation and

development. Reporting itaccurately is more vital than ever


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2. The present: How we do it

at The Economist


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2. How we do it

Scientists and technologists

like our coverage because:

We get it right, mostly

We explain what they do totheir families and friends

We keep them up to date with

developments in other fields


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2. How we do it

We try to be three things

in our coverage (not just in ourtech coverage):

Broad

Deep

A filter


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2. How we do it > Broad

Overview of the field

What other companies aredoing this? Look at whole field.

How long has the idea beenaround? What is new?

What are its prospects, really?

(Eg: portable fuel cells,biometrics, videoconferencing)


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Cross-industry comparisons

Can help to identify trends orpotential pitfalls

(Eg: Dotcoms and clean-tech;airlines and telecoms; cars andphones; social networks and

early ISPs)


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International comparisons

What happened in othercountries? Policies? Socialfactors?

Evidence from X suggests

(Eg: telecoms deregulation,

broadband in South Korea,3G in Japan)


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Historical comparisons

Analogies can help toexplain or predict

(Eg: telegraph and internet:World peace? Hype? Hackers?)


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2. How we do it > Deep

Deeper coverage: more

technical detail, not hand-waving

Our readers have an appetite foran extra level of detail

Detail can be added withoutusing more complex language


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The problem with this design was that

during recharging, the metallic lithium

reformed unevenly at the negativeelectrode, creating spiky structures called

dendrites that are unstable and

reactive, and can pierce the separator

and cause an explosion. So today's

rechargeable lithium-ion batteries do not

contain lithium in metallic form. Insteadthey use materials with lattice structures

for both positive and negative electrodes.

As the battery discharges, the lithium

ions swim from the negative-electrode

lattice to the positive one; during

recharging, they swim back again. Thisto-and-fro approach is called a rocking

chair design.


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Analogies can help

The trick is to simplify in a way

that helps novices yet does notoffend experts in the field

We often ask experts for helpwhen choosing an analogy


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Roberto Padovani, Qualcomms chief technology

officer, explains the difference between theseapproaches by analogy with a dinner-party

conversation. FDMA is akin to a party at which

everybody talks simultaneously, but each pair of

speakers converses at a different musical pitch,

from booming bass to piping treble. A rota systemin which party-goers took turns to speak would be

like TDMA. And everybody talking at once, only in

different languages (so that other conversations

are rendered incomprehensible), would beequivalent to the spread-spectrum approach, by

now dubbed CDMA.


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We boffinise technical stories to

check that they are accurate

Virtuous circle: more accuracymeans better access

And we can always ignoreboffins comments if we choose


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2. How we do it > Filter

One of the most important things

we do is ignore stories, and actas a filter

Be sceptical, but not cynical

Miracle-cure stories look good,but undermine credibility


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PR firms are very active in IT in

particular; more filtering needed

Is their client the best example,or just the most accessible?

Good PRs will admit that theirclients rivals exist


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We only run six tech stories a

week, plus TQ every quarter

Vital, not urgent

When we ask readers if they

want TQ to be longer, they sayno. They rely on us to filter


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3. The future: Where tech

journalism is going


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3. Where tech journalism is going

In the 1840s

The Economist

incorporated the

Railway Monitor

Nothing lasts forever!


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In 2006 readers started to ask for

more coverage of alternativeenergy -- not the internet

This is clearly the next big thing

Climate change is a tech story-- the biggest in history


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One point of view: peak in 2013

(The next bubble: Priming the markets for

tomorrow's big crash. By Eric Janszen. HarpersMagazine, February 2008)


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Computing/telecoms is no longer

the only definition of the techindustry

So start learning about batteries,fuel cells, solar panels, ethanol,

wind, wave, nuclear, etc


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History (dotcom bubble)

suggests broad adoption willoccur after bubble bursts

The fight against climate changewill involve lots of technology

that will need to be explained.No silver bullet; a portfolio


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Debates raging around:

Cap and trade v carbon tax

Biofuels v food

Clean-tech subsidiesGM crops

Geoengineering

Plenty of explaining to do


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Biotechnology will probably be

part of the solution:GM crops

Fuel from artificial life-forms

And biotechnology is heating up

anyway. So learn about that, too


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The good news for tech

journalists who know aboutcomputers:

Alternative energy and biotechdepend on a foundation of IT

(smart grids, DNA analysis)-- so you have a head start


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I am an optimist

If we do our jobs right, we can

help to fix the problem

I am looking forward to the future

-- see you there!


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Why technology journalism matters

Tom Standage, The Economist

January 17th 2009

Tom Standage, the Economist - Media Connected

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