On May 26, 2026, the School of Media and Communication (SMC) at Shenzhen University hosted an academic lecture titled “History as a Strategic Guide: What Two Centuries of Media Evolution Teach Us About the Future.” The lecture was delivered by Professor Marko M. Skoric, Associate Professor and PhD Programme Director in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong.
Professor Skoric opened the lecture by emphasizing that studying media history offers a valuable framework for understanding the present and anticipating how emerging technologies may reshape communication in the future. Tracing the development of electronic media back to the invention of the telegraph in the nineteenth century, he examined how early radio evolved from a largely amateur pursuit into a regulated mass medium and a major commercial industry. Likewise, the early World Wide Web similarly emerged as an idealistic space for collaboration and information sharing, long before sustainable business models came to dominate its development. Turning to the digital era, Professor Skoric discussed how social media has evolved from enabling broad “networked publics” to fostering increasingly clustered online communities. Algorithmic recommendation systems, he noted, can further reinforce these divisions by creating information silos.
Artificial intelligence is now driving another major transformation in the media landscape. Professor Skoric pointed out that social media is moving from an environment dominated by user-generated content toward one increasingly populated by AI-generated material. This transformation raises pressing concerns over copyright, authenticity, and the possible erosion of human originality. Misinformation itself is not new, he observed, but algorithms have dramatically increased the speed and scale of its circulation. Against this backdrop, authenticity and trust are likely to become even more central to the future of media, while genuine interpersonal communication and verifiable human experience may acquire renewed significance.
During the Q&A session, faculty members and students engaged Professor Skoric in a lively discussion on algorithmic transparency, data ethics, and the challenges of building social consensus in an increasingly personalized media environment. By placing contemporary technological transformations in the broader context of two centuries of media evolution, the lecture offered participants a valuable historical perspective and a critical lens through which to understand and navigate the rapidly changing digital media landscape.
