RSS, Bikers and Recycling

In my Sep 5 post, I wrote that people are more interested in local news than in international news. The tendency is similar in case of people’s fields of interest. People like to read about what interests them, in which case RSS feeds can be really important and helpful. Again, what we see is that people try to differentiate between news and find the ones that affect or interest them.

My textbook for History of U.S. Mass Media class discusses the difference between the traditional mass communicational model and the new one created by the Internet. The book, called The Dynamics of Mass Communication, says that while earlier the so-called “push” model was used (“the sender pushes the information to the receiver” p. 20), now the “pull” model is in effect, which means that “the receiver pulls only the information that he or she wants.” (p. 20) I think RSS feeds are the perfect examples for this.

People with special concentrations can find exactly what they want to hear about, and then, as the article says, they can create forums around these feeds, which I find amazing!

The author, Dave K. Poulson, also writes, “We’re doing what journalists have always done: deliver the news.” Exactly. Journalism should deliver news. But—and now we’re come back to the good old discussion—in order to deliver news, most precisely, to be able to create RSS feeds, news sources should go ONLINE! Journalists should not only create news but also make sure that news reach the audience they were targeted to. So, going online is not optional: it’s a must!

I think I might specialize in some online journalism stuff. I feel that the Internet is such an amazing thing, mostly when it comes to news, and newspapers just miss out on this opportunity.