This was a pretty interesting reading, a bit long, though. I really appreciate their efforts to do research on the news media, because it’s a very ambiguous area in terms of defining it with statistical data. The following findings shocked me or made me think:
1. The Internet is not free. Wow! And it’s true! All the money goes to the Internet provider and nothing to the content creators!
2. Ethics are important in blogging. I already spent a semester with this issue, but I think I’ll need to think a lot more about it to come up with a solution or at least an own ethical standard for this type of journalism. I found it also interesting that young people don’t trust blogs. Is it actually a good thing that they get skeptical about the Internet so early? My answer is, “well…” Of course it’s not their fault that the Internet is not reliable, but they’ll have to “live” on the Internet, work with it. How can we use a system that we don’t trust?
3. Many news outlets are still hesitating when it comes to going online. WHY??? I just don’t get why they don’t go ahead and at least try it. The Internet is all about freedom. They could basically put out any type of Web site and change the concept, layout, whatever any time. If only timing matters, what are they waiting for?!
4. Online news: the number of incidental news consumers is high. This means that online news providers should try everything to attract people to news sites where they couldn’t avoid bumping into breaking news. Online news sources should put links all over the Internet to lead people to Web sites with those little “breaking news boxes.”
5. When it comes to online journalism, content-related skills are more appreciated then technical skills. Well, I guess everyone can take pictures and make videos. I was 13 when I edited my first videos. Our generation grew up with the modern technology, which also enables us to adopt new trends and technologies pretty fast. Our parents are happy to finally learn how to use their mobiles phones, then the iPhone comes out and they are lost again. Our problem is simply the lack of ability to do good journalism… So, who’s in worse situation, actually?
6. Why is local and ethnical press still flourishing, when everything else is in a decrease? Sometimes I have the feeling that the information coming from the news is simply too much. We only think that the world has become a “global village” thanks to the Internet, but forget the fact that it’s just as big as it used to be! We will never be able to read the personal blogs of all 6 billion people. Even though it might be out there, it doesn’t mean that we can consume any amount of information. I think the trend of concentrating on local news shows that people care rather about whether the workers of the local grocery store are on strike than how many people were killed in the Middle East. And this is not because they wouldn’t care about people dying there. It’s just that they need a priority when it comes to news.
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2 comments:
Em, lots of thoughtful comments. Your answer to number 3 (why not go online?) may be number 1 (no money for content creators. Great idea about the breaking news boxes, especially if the sites they appear on see a benefit. If the boxes take users away from the sites, that could be a problem. Last, interesting question about local news flourishing. One of the news values in your textbook is proximity. People want to know what's going to affect them, and perhaps you're right that what's going on thousands of miles away just doesn't seem as important as what's down the block. If in fact the distant news could affect users, it's up to us to grab their attention and explain why.
Comments on the textbook reading?
On an election story?
Links?
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