How will people consume their news and media?
The way people consume their news is changing, the move from reading news through print media to having the news on the go is visibly apparent. Thus traditional media platforms such as, The Times, are moving to online business models without losing the quality and credibility of daily newspaper edition.
The print media industry has already seen a decrease in circulation and readership figures when compared to four years ago, when new media was at its infancy. A recent study by Forbes Insights and Google determined that the “internet has become the chief source of business information” for key decision makers. The survey of 354 top executives found that during work hours 70 per cent of executives prefer to read “traditional” media online rather than in print (30 per cent), and 69 per cent prefer to access “traditional broadcast media” online rather than over the air. This again illustrates the prowess of new media against traditional platforms. Nonetheless the importance of print media has not declined with the circulation and readership figures. Research still outlines the influences that print media have on decisions (Brunswick Review, 2009).
Research into how people consume their media concluded that many people felt addicted to online media and without it felt alone and disconnected. It also uncovered that respondents from their study did not receive their news from branded traditional print media, but from email, texting, Facebook and Twitter (Cass, 2010).
Many admirers of new media praise the impact of social media. Initially the likes of Facebook and Twitter were seen as a platform for mundane individuals who find the need to share details about their lives; the view has now totally changed and many regard social media as the go-to source for breaking news, which allows readers to tap straight into the minds of news makers, writers, gatherers and thought leaders (De Rosa, 2010)
To the question of how people will consume their news and media; many researchers, bloggers and journalists have come to realise the importance of the new media landscape. News and media organisations will look to approach monetisation and content experimentation that is focused on looking at the web in a new way. News in the coming years will blur the lines between audience and creator more than ever in an era of social media. Below is a look at several trends in content distribution and presentation that is likely to occur.
1. Personalised news
News organisations will design stories that are more suited to the way readers consume online content. One early sign of this is the recent collaboration between Google, The New York Times, and The Washington Post on the Living Stories project, an experiment that presents coverage of a specific story or topic in one place, making it easy to navigate the topic and see the timeline of coverage on the story. It also allows one to get a summary of the story and track the conversations taking place. This format contextualises and personalises the news.
2. Real-time news streams
Real-time news is increasingly important and will become an integral part of traditional news sources. Jeff Jarvis, buzzmachine.com media critic predicts these streams will replace web sites. It is already visible with Twitter streams and other visualisations incorporated into news home pages with updated financial and market information from new sources like Google Finance.
3. Blogozines
Blogozines are another format of blogging but with a bit of design, in essence an online magazine, that is an engaging alternative to the traditional blog post. This format is great in keeping readers engaged in long-form stories. Though blogozines will not mark the end of simple blogging but act as an adaptation to the original form.
4. Social news
Last year the social news trend gained momentum with the explosion of Twitter. Organisations will further distribute their content across social platforms that allow its users to create a personalised and socialised news stream. Personalised search has emerged in 2009 which will see more sites integrating applications that allow users to create personalised news streams. News organisations are beginning to establish a presence across multiple platforms and social sites. It is not just the popular sites like Twitter and Facebook anymore, but with platforms like Tumblog, a platform that is good for magazine journalism.
Robert Quigley, social media editor at the Austin American-Statesman, believes news sites will continue to exist for a while, but “smart news sites will extend their tentacles into the spaces where people are communicating, and talking about news.”
5. Mobile news
Already popular amongst smart phone users, mobile news will see a distinct transformation in the way people consume news as smart phones become ubiquitous. More and more news organisations will innovate by making mobile phone apps that will give the users the news they need as well as creating a revenue stream for news organisations. Bill Thompson, a commentator relays, ‘Innovation, not pay walls, the future for media companies, like thousands of people around the world I have just purchased The Guardian app for the iPhone.’
Mobile news also has great potential to increase the number of content consumers, if done in a way where consumers are able to subscribe to sections from different news organisations. Newspapers and publishers need to create a platform where consumers can purchase and manage their own digital subscriptions.
(By Nahidur - August 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment