The DIY (do-it-yourself) democratized flavor of content that is readily available as news on the internet, has yet to surpass online news from traditional media sources (in terms of online consumption):
“Even with so many news sources, more people now consume what old media newsrooms produce…the top 10 news web sites…commanding a larger share of audience…”
According to the most recent State of the News Media 2008 report produced by Journalism.org, citizen media sources have a smaller audience, despite the content being produced by people with “more elite backgrounds than journalists”.
Yesterday, Ars Technica published a summary piece on the report, highlighting that despite online news from traditional media ranking at the top of the list, sites such as Google News (also ranked in the top 10), serves to diversify by aggregating news from more global sources.
Adam Thierer of The Technology Liberation Front breaks down the report in finer granularity and raises interesting questions about the conclusions being drawn — be sure to clue up on his notion regarding de-massification of mass media as well.
It is increasingly important that, because we still consume the majority of our news via traditional media outlets (but online), we are able to digest and assess any message we consume (more effectively). Marinate.
Good post. Definite gonna check out this report.
The State of the News Media report is a good one to dig into. I found it interesting that the scope of coverage by MSM is narrowing, which is unfortunate. I addressed this section of the report in this blog entry: http://www.baileyblog.com/2008/03/17/the-narrowing-of-the-us-media-agenda-means-less-news-all-the-time/