News get's connected.
As the world develops at a dizzying pace technologically, it is a bit of a case of dog eats dog for media entities. As readership and circulation of print formats continue to suffer a steady decline, most are looking to their online counterparts to pick up the pieces and win back the readers. Or at least the clever ones are.
With the emergence of the smartphone and the tablet, readers can now carry a source of the news in their pockets and handbags. Literally everywhere they go. Not only can online enthusiasts flick through news grabs and stories, perhaps faster than one can negotiate the pages of a cumbersome newspaper, but they can also contribute.
I want to be a good journalism student and say I prefer newspapers, but I just can’t look past the convenience and appeal of the user-friendly web. Especially when presented with the opportunity to add my two cents!
I want to be a good journalism student and say I prefer newspapers, but I just can’t look past the convenience and appeal of the user-friendly web. Especially when presented with the opportunity to add my two cents!
Whether it be on my Macbook or Iphone; the effortless navigation between multiple windows and links, an ability to share photos, thoughts and facts through blogger, twitter and facebook far outweighs that of a one dimensional newspaper experience. My Mum calls it nauseating but I simply can’t get enough of it!
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| MacBook multitasking |
And there-in lies the dilemma. The evolution.
We are experiencing a socialization of news and information thats has taken off and is expanding as more and more people enter the online world.
The web is a multi-facetted experience. It offers heightened colour and visual content to a degree that cannot be achieved through print. Similarly absent in traditional newspapers is a users capacity to upload, watch and hear video and sound files from the most current news stories.
The web is a multi-facetted experience. It offers heightened colour and visual content to a degree that cannot be achieved through print. Similarly absent in traditional newspapers is a users capacity to upload, watch and hear video and sound files from the most current news stories.
Online news happens in real time. A reality in this competitive, technology saturated environment is that consumers want short and to the point. The average reader doesn’t want an analytical and in depth news story with multiple sources and a thousand words because as valuable as that is to some, the reality is they just aren’t going to lend the time to read it.
The 07’ Poynter Eye track study found that when presented with a news stimulus, the majority of subject's eyes tracked first to the the images over the Text. Photojournalist Sarah Quinn from the Poynter Institute values visual journalism as a influential news source.
“The study is to help editors and publishers understand how deeply people are reading, ” she said.
“The study is to help editors and publishers understand how deeply people are reading, ” she said.
Readers want sharp and snappy, three minute articles that can be read on the go, with sound and visual aids to help tell the story.
Online news is a social and fully interactive experience which is growing in strength and numbers daily. Of course there are potential (and apparent) downfalls of using the web as a source of news.
A number of news sources have made the shift to the online medium in an attempt to capture the tech savvy audience. So far so good. But do the pro's outweigh the con's? My discussion of this in the coming weeks.
A number of news sources have made the shift to the online medium in an attempt to capture the tech savvy audience. So far so good. But do the pro's outweigh the con's? My discussion of this in the coming weeks.
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