Well, actually, that’s the question. How do you read your news? In the last week or so there have been some interesting pieces of news/opinion that have come out in the media world that prompt my curiosity.
One is an opinion piece from AdAge magazine envisioning a world in which Dow Jones folds the print version of The Wall Street Journal in favor of an online-only edition.
The second is an article from Mediapost announcing topline findings from a recent Pew Research Center for The People & The Press survey that basically states that the web is still a secondary medium for news.
One article seems to contradict the other—although, admittedly, the AdAge article doesn’t give a specific timeline of this imagined conversion to Online-only and the Pew Research study shows an unmistakeable flight to the web from “traditional media”…
In any event, back to the question: how do you get your news?
Good question, Matt. Almost daily, I get some news from NPR on the radio. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I get the Lansing State Journal newspaper. I usually look through at least one of the papers in full each weekend (often Sunday). Weekly, TIME magazine comes to our home, and I eventually get to that. Sometimes, I watch the local news, but very rarely the national news. And if something has sparked my interest, it is off to the web to learn more.
Waste valuable reading time on the news? Sorry, other than the Time, which I only read the interesting parts, and the occasional newspaper headline that catches my eye, I get all my news from the TODAY show. That’s probably why I’m the demographic for that show, but not the demographic for the Wall Street Journal.
When I was still working on the Bar Journal, we had similar discussions. There was a very small segment who felt the online version was better, but mostly the lawyers still wanted a hard copy.
1. cnn.com, for immediate breaking news.
2. The Economist, print edition, for indepth articles and insightful analysis using language above what the lowest common denominator usually prefers.
I’m not especially impressed with the media anymore, not that I ever was—it has gone from Carlyle’s fourth estate to a fifth column. Call me cynical but–CNN is shallow; its international version, “CNN International”, appropriately enough, doesn’t report anything interesting; the NY Times puts U.S. military lives in danger (a different conversation altogether); Fox news spouts the latest right-wing meme as if it is actual news; and BBC is much too much to the left. Makes one long for the simpler days of yellow journalism and Spanish-American wars…ah the good old days!
What really gets me though, and maybe it has always been there and I’m just now noticing it, is the cult of celebrity that grips people these days. Is my own life so painful, dull and/or uninteresting that I should join the masses and become obsessed with Brangelina and the results of its reproductive activity? Oprah Winfrey’s fawning, sickeningly sweet comments during the Pitt-Aniston break-up about how she hopes that Aniston is “taking it ok” made me want to be sick. Boo-fricking-hoo. Why should I care? It’s not all about money, but Aniston can cry herself to sleep on her imported down pillows and her silk sheets and then have her houseboy wipe her tears with hundred dollar bills while Brangelina pays some Namibian woman to go through labor for her (it); the rest of us will just have to just gut it out in the real world just as everybody else has done since the dawn of time.
Phew.
I hope you know though that I’m not really as cynical as this makes me out to be, well rereading it just now–maybe I need to reexamine that after all…
I get the bulk of my news from John Stewart….
I avoid print papers unless there’s a particular article or set of articles that grabs me (maybe once every month or two). I’m much more apt to go online than purchase print copy to get news info.
Part of that is because if I’m interested in a story, I’m likely to look at news across several publications.
I think you’ve hit on something, The Daily Show, the Colbert Report, and the best print/online “news” source–The Onion, are where you can find real news.
Well, I do not get any newspapers delivered to my home because even though I do like to read through them, I find I do not have the time to. When I did have a paper delivered (the local one) I found that they just piled in a basket with a “I’ll read them someday” thought.
I read the paper at work when I’m in the breakroom, or just need to get away from my desk. I also read any eye-catching headlines on MSN when I go on the internet (MSN is my homepage). For the most part, I agree with Dave S. (Shocking! lol j/k Dave
) I find the media just wants to sensationalize everything and they are way too concerned with the shock factor of reporting rather than real news. The whole Mel Gibson thing recently comes to mind. I do not know what he did, I didn’t choose to read about it, but I saw several headlines about it and heard his name mentioned on news stations while flipping through the stations.
Reading Dave’s comment gave me information about Brangelina that I did not previously know. lol I do read the Time magazine that comes here weekly when it catches my eye, and I will read the newspaper front to back when I am at my Mom’s or Grandma’s on Sunday. For the most part, though, I don’t follow the gossip and that is what the “news” seems to be anymore.
I do also listen to NPR occationally (my boyfriend is an avid listener) and he fills me in on a lot of what is going on.)
Then I can decide if I want to know more about it or not…
I do prefer to read an actual newspaper over reading online though. If the paper does not give me enough information, then I will look it up online.
Wow a long comment about nothing… heehee
See? I’m a very agreeable person, just ask Stefanie, “yes dear, I agree with everythng you just said. Huh? Of course I was listening to you.”
This girl is one who uses the “secondary medium” for news most… that’d be the internet and I am known to turn on the TV to catch the news. I have set a new goal for this year since it is the first time I am living alone. I am planning to get the paper and read it in the morning. It’ll be a first for me so I’m not sure how it’ll go… but I won’t know till I try. I am the person who would be interested in more news options online.
Newsweek, mostly read up to two weeks late.
Excuse? If I need one, it seems to me that the electorate has no long-term memory, and daily news in whatever form contributes to that.
Other news sources: Judy, and whatever news TV she has on when I’m nearby. Jay Leno, sometimes. Bits of news from radio, or other people talking. I once read that for every serious primary news reader/listener, there were three or four people who got news through those people. Some days I am thus Judy’s satellite for news, at least for fast breaking news.
When my concentration was better, I got some of my news, the kind that nobody calls news, from Scientific American.
Very little comes to me online. I believe Judy’s answer would be much different. In a competitive “current events” quiz, she would leave me in the dust. In a “since last election” news quiz, I think I could give her some competition.
By the way, Dave S., my compliments on the name “Brangelina” for one of the glitz-fuzed mutant life forms of the popular Cal-ture. Possibly with more of these phenomena studied, a genus could be defined, and specific genotypes given species names, mod-mock-Latin style, as,
Hollywoodia Brangelina
with statements of the climates within which each thrives. I’m not a biologist, so I’ll let others carry on from here.
Okay, since I’ve been mentioned I should now speak for myself. Except when traveling I “read” my news from online. Also, I like the TV Newshour with Jim Lehrer. This 60 minute show is in-depth reporting on three to four news stories and a short summary of the day’s news. I’m a fan of The Diane Rehm Show on NPR radio (this is not just news, but often covers news topics). When traveling I try to find the local NPR radio station for news or I’ll use CNN HL to keep in touch with what’s happening in our world.
During the last presidential election, my nephew John Pool suggested the informed voter should not read just one source. That’s when at John’s suggestion I began using Google News. I really like the ease of having one topic being covered in a collection of newspapers. I receive email headlines from WSJ, CNN, and MSNBC.
Another source of news for me is Military.com. I receive by email daily the Military.com the Early Brief. This I learned about while David E. was in Afghanistan and appreciated the military coverage that is often lacking in other sources.
Interesting articles come my way via the WSJ’s Tomorrow’s Columns Today. Again perhaps not “news” as we usually think of it, but great stuff to read!
The summary is that my news comes from varied online sources, NPR, and PBS.
I wish I could take credit for the “Brangelina” coining, but alas, the “mainstream media” (whatever that means) beat me to it.
Yes, I know its now October and this whole conversation happened a couple of months ago, but I thought of this when I saw the headline on The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54085