Somewhere near the end of his latest book, Losing The News, Alex Jones offers up this unpleasant prospect:

“My nightmare scenario is one of bankrupt newspapers, news by press release that is thinly disguised advocacy, scattered and ineffectual bands of former journalists and sincere amateurs whose work is left in obscurity, and a small cadre of high priced newsletters that serve as an intelligence service for the rich and powerful.”

How to avoid such a dystopian fate for the news will be among topics considered by Mr. Jones and leading voices in online communication, radio broadcasting and book publishing at a panel discussion beginning at 5 p.m. Saturday at the Chilmark Community Center, titled The Media Revolution: the Future of Journalism and the Media.

On the panel are Michele Norris, presenter of the National Public Radio show All Things Considered, Mr. Jones, who received a Pulitzer prize for writing about the media, and Ernest Wilson 3rd, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. Moderating the panel will be Peter Osnos, founder and editor at large of the publishing company Public Affairs books.

The event is a lead-in for the Martha’s Vineyard Book Festival on Sunday, of which the Gazette is a sponsor.

The idea of reliable information as a resource distributed to the select few is already at work, according to Mr. Jones. Top-flight journalists, laid off by shrinking media organs, are recruited by financiers who apply their skills to root out profit-making information, rather than uncovering news for public consumption.

“Some preeminent investigative reporters are now working for hedge funds,” Mr. Jones said yesterday, “I find that disturbing — reporters aren’t perfect but most are motivated in some part by public service. This is a matter of money . . . taking that skill set, talent, experience and knowledge out of the public sphere.”

Meanwhile, in an age where information is instant, spread just as easily by individuals as organizations, and infinitely accessible, those still in the business of gathering hard news lamely jockey for place amid far more attractive information.

“The number of people interested in serious news has always been relatively small but the product that supplied comics and crosswords subsidized the hard news,” said Mr. Jones.

While older forms of media presented hard-core news alongside sports, comics and crosswords, disaggregation of the news allows the consumer to access only the topic they want, avoiding exposure to other areas.

“If you’re only interested the Red Sox, that’s all you get,” he said, adding: “With the Web there is vastly greater opportunity to distract yourself with other things. Video games, e-mail, there are endless opportunities to waste time, it’s something I know very well.

“It’s about finding a mechanism to keep news in front of people.”

In the information age the consumer stands to lose the judgement of editors, something Mr. Jones thinks is valuable. “It seems to me that having gate- keepers to an overwhelming supply of information, it’s a great part of the bargain,” he said. “The editorial judgment of a newspaper is something I value.”

Mr. Osnos acknowledges that news delivery has undergone a sea change during his career.

“I just spent two weeks in China and I was never out of date,” he said, “I checked the headlines on my Blackberry; I could read The New York Times on my computer and my son’s computer if I wanted and there was CNN, BBC on cable news in the hotel. I lived in Russia in the seventies; I was excited to get the Herald Tribune three days late.

“In the past you could watch news prescribed by a group of TV stations, you could read the newspaper that was delivered to door if you wanted . . . Now each individual is their own editor in chief. You take what you want, where, when and how you want it,” he said.

The role of the supplier then, must be to diversify.

“The way to go is to publish in every way that technology permits,” he said. “Ford said you can have it in any color as long as it’s black; that’s not good enough anymore. It’s about looking at ways to continue to provide revenue and content and make sure the consumer knows we’re there.”

Finding a way to make one or several delivery methods pay is a difficult task, he acknowledges, in a climate where these structural changes are accompanied by the cyclical economic factor of a serious recession. And advertising is in flux just like the news industry it supports.

“The concept of the classified ad has gone away to a large degree, but the display ad is still in business. Online advertising is still finding its feet but classifieds appear to work, display ads less so. You can’t do on the Web what you can do on the pages of Vanity Fair.”

Fundamentally the role of advertising is not under threat, he argued.

“Business will always want places to put their ads. They’ll tattoo it on your forehead if they think it will work,” he said.

Prize-winning journalist Ms. Norris is optimistic, too, where the fundamentals are concerned.

“News gathering is still an essential enterprise,” she said.

But in the 24-hour news cycle the journalistic tenets of integrity, balance and accuracy struggle.

“Things are reported before the filters are fully engaged,” she said.

Though her station, the grant- subsidized NPR, is a rare success story in recent years with expanding listenership and newly opened foreign bureaus, the nonprofit model may not work for other organizations, and is not without its drawbacks.

“You have to bleed a nickel every day. And it’s not easy to find the resources to cover the world, to move on a dime when news breaks,” she said.

She stopped short of prognosticating the way news will be delivered in the future: “If you’d asked me 10 years ago I would not have predicted what occurred in this past 10 years.”