News consumption increases

A recent PEW Research Center survey shows that Americans are spending less time reading newspapers, but more time consuming news (an average of 70 minutes per day). It’s no surprise that the growing number of digital news options caused the change.

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Investigative reporting shines brightly in the newsroom

Charlotte Hall, editor of the Orlando Sentinel, recently offered a refreshing perspective on the state of journalism. In the digital age, she claims that newsrooms have become an even more important part of the public discourse.

Social media and live chats provide readers an opportunity to interact with reporters and enrich their news experience, according to Hall. These personal interactions help reporters gain the trust of their audiences and produce powerful pieces.

Hall argues that the emphasis of many newsrooms on investigative reporting continues to lead to significant changes in communities across the country.

As Hall editorialized, “A good newspaper is a lamp to its community, shining light in dark places and showing the way. That lamp still burns bright in America’s newsrooms.”

Hall’s opinion is unique – many experts believe that social media is causing newsrooms to become irrelevant. Only time will tell if the lights in newsrooms will stay lit.

Twitter signals the future of news

This morning I learned about the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Pawlenty’s unallotments not through a traditional news source but through Twitter. The past two weekends, I avidly followed the DFL and GOP conventions through Twitter. Even though I didn’t attend either convention, I knew the instant endorsements were made thanks to my fellow tweeters.

Twitter has rapidly evolved into the fastest way to disseminate information. In fact, some researchers recently heralded the site as the future of news. According to the study, timely topics make up more than 80% of discussions on Twitter, and 54% of tweets are “headline news.”

Twitter has become the best way to break news and share important information. In fact, many reporters get story ideas and information through Twitter. But, because tweets are limited to only 140 characters, links to more in-depth articles are essential. Traditional news agencies and reporters are not going to go extinct because of Twitter. Instead, they are adapting to the rigorous pace of digital reporting.

So, even though “flashing on the screen” might replace “hot off the presses” as the breaking news cliché, newsrooms will still be buzzing.

Newspapers rethink Internet anonymity

Online comments are supposed to stimulate an “open dialog” about issues in blogs, news stories, and other Internet forums. But when comments are anonymous, they often disintegrate into a cesspool of hateful, nasty words directed at the author or subject of the article.

A Cleveland judge recently discovered that anonymous postings are not always so anonymous. After a series of offensive comments about a local attorney were posted on its Web site, a Cleveland newspaper publicly disclosed that the comments were posted from an e-mail address of a judge who was presiding over some of the lawyer’s cases. The judge’s 23-year-old daughter admitted to posting the comments, and the judge sued the newspaper for violating her privacy.

While the Internet creates new ways for people to connect and share ideas, sometimes people go too far. Newspapers are trying to find ways to regulate these interactions – something they have found rather difficult.

To read more about how the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and other newspapers are trying to regulate comment streams, click here.

What do you think about online commenting?

The Power of a Link

Over the past decade, the Internet has transformed news consumption into a social experience. Readers can now participate in the news process by sharing articles that they find interesting. This dissemination of news often takes place through social media. According to a recently released survey by the Pew Research Center, 52% of online news consumers have posted a link on a social networking site and 51% of people who see links on these sites have read them.

I am the perfect example of this phenomenon. This morning I read a report that I found interesting (see above) and wanted to share it with people (you). So, I’m linking to it in a blog and will then post the link via Facebook and Twitter. This starts a chain reaction where my followers repost the link for their followers to read. It’s quick, it’s fast, and it’s a powerful way to participate in the news process.

Newspapers not yet extinct

It’s widely held that the format of news content and advertisements printed on thin paper, delivered to our homes or offices, and lying around the local greasy spoon or barber shop – something which used to carry the dignified name “newspaper” – is like a dinosaur near the end of the Cretaceous Period. We’re just waiting for the massive asteroid to hit News Media Earth.

Well, old fashioned newspapers aren’t quite dead yet. For an interesting example, see this post on the Cato Institute’s blog on hardcopy’s superior ability (compared to online content) to generate web-based reader responses:

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/02/09/power-of-paper/