Recently I was watching a program on the Discovery Science Channel about what life will be like 50 years from now. It looks like there will be invisible suits for our troops and magic elevators to space stations. Also: we will be wearing those futuristic jumpsuits that seem to be in every bad sci-fi movie. (Which I don’t believe with happen. In the past 50 years, the only major breakthrough in what we wear just may be the hoodie.)

It got me wondering… what will the Media landscape look like 50 years from now? So with my apologies to Conan O’Brien, I now present my glimpse of the future of Media. A glimpse all the way to the year 2058:

• Daytime television programming will consist of shows about schools and lawyers, while commercials will be brief court rulings, thirty seconds of catfights on Jerry Springer, and Barbara Walters and whoever the new panel consists of on “The View.”
• In an effort to become a “greener” industry, paper companies will start using 98% post-consumer waste when printing inserts. However, a detective starts digging in too deep and discovers that the inserts are made…of people!
• After the XM-Sirius Satellite radio merger, terrestrial radio couldn’t compete and eventually became a thing of the past. Instead of live deejays for remotes at open houses, lifeless robots now handle announcing duties. Or Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” if you can’t afford the robots.
• Because most news is obtained on the Internet, local papers are only printed for wrapping things to be packed for moving and used in hamster cages. As a result advertising for moving science schools and hamster care schools skyrocket.

My point? There’s a lot of change predicted for how traditional media will operate in the future. To predict too far out would be almost an exercise in futility, because so many things can change. Who would have expected the Internet to become such a prevalent way to search for qualified leads? What I do know is that there will always be an audience for those who need to learn and develop their careers. Whether we get their attention though the Internet, High-Def TV, or writing on the moon, we’re ready to face what the future holds.