Broadband News Journalism
Maybe you have not noticed it, but hardly anyone uses the television to get their daily serving of news anymore. With the advent of smartphones and increasing accessibility of the Internet to nearly everyone, the news is often found as part of the user experience on social media, or when they are using a search engine.
For that reason, CNN has majorly scaled back its broadcasts on cable television to pre-packaged game shows and entertainment documentaries. It’s become something of a hybrid between VH1 and say A&E. It would seem that news is taking a tumble, but that is hardly the case.
The Medium Is The Message
The famous media critic and social researcher Marshall McLuhan wrote about a similar phenomenon in his journalism classic, The Medium Is The Massage. The underlying thought is that the way news or entertainment is delivered colors the message and the experience for the viewer or reader. The title is a play on words, which is saying the people see what they perceive.
For instance, as traditional television news takes a back seat to the Internet, the video is changing the online news consumption experience. The Internet at one time was something people only trusted when information was in print.
It turned out that blinking banner ads were the scourge back in the early days. They would flip open 100 windows, drop a virus, and get people fired for displaying porn. Suffice to say, videos and anything similar to it were not only questionable but could also cause viruses.
In addition, computers were not able to handle the bandwidth. Often, Internet speeds were still sluggish. And, clicking on a video meant that solitaire and the user’s favorite blogs suddenly could not load.
The face of media has changed in many ways. Some companies, who were solely in print and earned money based upon subscriptions and advertisements, suddenly could not guarantee as many eyes on their pages. They had increased competition from new players on the Internet who garnered more attention because online media is their expertise.
Getting Into The Video Game Online
These days some of the major players in the online news landscape, including Huffington Post, are getting into news videos.
These days, playback and Internet speeds have grown in leaps and bounds. That means that smartphones are able to handle video well. In addition, people are more likely now to trust video than they were 20 years ago online.
It is a brand new wide world for Internet news. Yet, just like advertisers and coupons were a way to draw in consumers to buy newspapers 25 years ago, the Internet has an additional draw. It is a matter of what media outlets know how to keep people interested while offering them something extra to their news supply.
Fox News uses the appeal of getting people angry. Or, it appeals to people who have a strong emotional response to it. People recognize it and watch it either because they love it or love to hate it.
Who will change the face of journalism in the broadband landscape? Time will tell. It will be interesting to see who draws in an audience and how they make a profit from it.
