Attended a talk by a Google VP, Douglas Merrill, who said 8 hours of YouTube video were being uploaded every minute of every day, 24 hours a day. “The side effect of the democratisation of news is the chance for everyone to tell their stories.” Merrill predicted 40 per cent of American homes would have TiVo digital recorders within the next 5 years. But he also said people only skipped 2 of every 3 advertisements. Why do they watch advertisments when TiVo will skip them, I thought. But I have no answer. In a chat afterwards, Merrill said educators needed to teach journalism in the context of engagement. The future of journalism, he said, was news as perspective, giving a variety of opinions. “Journalists have loads of opinions, so why not let them write them, rather than insisting on objectivity and balance.” Merrill said the next big leap in technology was the power of cloud computing.