Amitabh Revi is a senior correspondent and anchor with NDTV in New Delhi, India.
During the 2010 Thomson Foundation Future Leaders course, participants were set the unusual task of predicting the future of the news industry – as a rap song. Here Amitabh describes how he and fellow journalist Misha Hussein rose to the challenge …
To get us thinking about the future of the news industry from a different perspective, we were introduced to Jon Webster, CEO of Music Managers Forum. He illustrated the revolution taking place in the music industry and the decline of the big record labels by telling the story behind MC Lars’ video Download the Song.
So when Future Leaders course leader Lyn Hartman set us the task of presenting our thoughts on the future of news as a rap song, Misha and I decided to follow MC Lars’s lead. He had, after all, borrowed a sample from Iggy Pop’s The Passenger on the track.
Jon checked with his legal team and told us that it was OK if we rapped to his music, since we were just ‘adapting’ Lars. So, we embarked on our new career in the rap world. You can buy the CD in any Wales music store. (Just kidding!)
Here’s a video of the MC Lars’ original (and a link to his Download this Song lyrics), followed by the words in our version …
… It’s called Download the News.
Download the News
It’s 2010, what’s on the consumer’s news list?
Get the latest from the net or pay cable for the gist
There already is a paradigm shift
The news revolution cannot be dismissed
£140 for the BBC,
or get on the web and get it for free
News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line
Lalalalalalala
If you can google it why pay for it all?
Is the news industry going to fall?
Or will it hit Rupert Murdoch’s pay-wall
Hey Mr Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala
Broadcasters where is all your content?
All the old rules will be bent
All visuals will be on an Avid cloud
Don’t cover your heads in a shroud
The future’s here and thumping real loud
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala
Multi-skills are here to stay
Old school journalists will have pay
TV news. What do viewers demand?
Will it mean content on command?
Hey Mr. Newspaper Man
Is the joke on you
Running your headlines
Like it was 2002
Hey Mr. Newspaper man,
Can your system compete?
Or is downloading going to be complete?
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
News Online or is News On the Line ?
Lalalalalalala
Coming up the weather in 5
But get it – now – online and live
How will news be sent?
However, whatever, it has to have compelling content
News Online or is News On the Line?
Lalalalalalala
(Repeat and fade out)
• The mention of an ‘Avid cloud’ is a reference to our invaluable discussion with John Curzon, newsroom specialist with Avid. He outlined some possible future scenarios for the news industry, in particular TV news, including the potential for reporters to edit stories in low definition while in the field, using minimal equipment, with the high-definition footage stored in the ‘cloud’.
This is the future. And we have to move with it. To paraphrase a song from the Irish band U2. All journalists will have to keep Running to Stand Still.
Rap partners: Amitabh Revi and Misha Hussein
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