MIT: media future is unpredictable.

A two-day "Future of Entertainment" conference, held last November in Cambridge, MA, and sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Convergence Culture Consortium (a partnership between those affiliated with the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT and companies with an interest in deciphering convergence culture), set out to predict the future of TV. And most panels came to the conclusion that ... well, it's all pretty unpredictable.

Among the questions posed during the days of academic conferences were: By what means will audiences enjoy entertainment in the future? Who will create entertainment? How can we adequately measure the cannibalized audiences of the future? TV and new media executives, and academics alike provided their observations and predictions of the world beyond "interactivity," or beyond digital.

"We now live in a networked society where we're seeing the ability of communities to rapidly pool information," said Henry Jenkins, director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies program and conference organizer. "This new environment both creates community opportunities and creates activities for this community."

Technology and market research company Forrester was represented by its vice president, Josh Bernoff, who outlined four cautionary principles, and summed up the tone of the conference: Don't assume that nothing is going to change; don't assume everything will change; don't assume it's about the ideas, not the biz; and don't assume business drives everything. But Bernoff assured the audience that "there will still be TV 10 years from now."