ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the future of journalism is being impacted by the technological development commonly referred to as the “Internet of Things” (IoT). It examines how technological determinism is demonstrated in the news media’s coverage of the IoT. For the news industry, the IoT means robots creating news without human intervention, perhaps leading to a further breakdown of our already fractured trust in journalists. Technological determinism is the belief that progress is driven by scientific-technological development, that such progress is inevitable and, to a large extent, beyond human control. The purpose is to demonstrate the value of political economy and to illustrate how the News Establishment is, largely, enmeshed in the myths and fables of technological determinism. A concrete manifestation of this unavoidable tendency towards a new dialectic in the digital economy is the so-called IoT and it is likely to cause disruption to journalism and the news industry.
