I would imagine that all new media journalists should be anticipating the inevitable rise of digital ink technologies in their lifetime. This will enable "digital newspapers" -- portable documents far better than your average PDA or cell phone screen, with better resolution than even the top of the line laptops have. Imagine a flexible thin piece of plastic that you could roll up like a wafer-thin newspaper and put into your backpocket. That's what the future might hold: check out Polymer Vision.
This research has been going on for quite some time now, but it's up to our culture and the industries at large to make it a success. If you haven't read up on digital ink, go to the news releases housed at E-Ink, who seems to be reigning in the industry right now.
Hey, I was thinking that as I read this post... "sounds a whole lot like the papers in 'The Diamond Age.'"
I wouldn't mind it :) No more wasted paper. Hooray!
I've been following the press releases about this technology for a couple years now, and it really does seem like the latest breakthrough is very promising.
We're reading "The Diamond Age" in EL 150, and "mediatronic" paper is frequently mentioned.