Newspapers Will Not Fade away in the Future

`Newspaper is forever.`

A professor at MIT, Nicholas Negrophonte, an expert in the field of digital technique, predicted on the 13th, ``Unfolding newspapers will keep its current form in the future despite the development of Media technology.``

After looking around the newspaper museum of Dong-a Ilbo (Sejong Ku Sejong Lo), he said, ``Some says that the paper media will fade away soon, but according to the result of Media Lab of MIT, the current form of newspapers will be beloved by subscribers in the future.``

``But the form of the printing will change.`` he added. According to him, ``In the future, we will have a newspaper with a foldable pulp in which an electronic sensor can connect the paper with Internet at any time.``

On the contrary, he prospected that Internet will substitute TV. ``TV is an unilateral media contrary to Internet, the bilateral media.`` he said.

He foresees the technology coming within 5 years in the combining of information technology and bio-technology, computers with brain of common sense, and the combination of new energy and wireless technology.

Negrophonte also praised the development of Korean information technology that enabled the customers to use ISDN Internet in the hotel room, comparing the technology of last year.

He has intensively discussed the issue of co-research of MIT Media Lab and ICU of KAIST. Professor Negrophonte also visited Kim Hak-Joon president of Dong-a Ilbo and had discusses about the future of newspapers.

Professor Negrophonte has led the digital technology over 30 years since 1968 when he approached human and computer interface with radical research. In 1980, he made the `international association for the popularization of computer` and the ‘Media Lab` in MIT in 1989. He also wrote the bestseller book, `Being Digital` and said, `The time of atom has gone and the time of bit has come`. He attracted attention from the world by pointing that human culture is moving from the period of analogue to digital.

Choi Soo-Mook mook@donga.com