Summary of Chapter 2
The media landscape has changed and is continuing to change rather dramatically as people rely more on technology rather than conventional methods of media consumption. The news readership growth rate of tablet and smartphone usage has increased in the last decade. Media professionals don’t see people using media less frequently, but rather are concerned about media fragmentation and whether or not this new transformation will be able to provide communities and essentially the world with enough media coverage. Convergence is a response to this fragmentation; many news operations understand that web coverage is where it’s at.
The chapter separates audiences into four different segments: traditionalists- who are the older and also the typical news consumer, they mostly watch the news, rather than read it and are more interested in the weather than science or technology, they make up the largest part of audience at 46%, integrators- who are well-educated and affluent, generally receive news via the tv, but also online, more interested in public affairs and makes up 23% of public, net-newsers- well-educated and young, generally read political blogs, regular online consumers, make up 13% of audience and the disengaged- people with low level of news interest, make up 14% of audience.
A lot of the public doesn’t trust what’s on the news and feels that most of what they see is based on a personal agenda and bias. However, audiences don’t seem to have an issue choosing where to receive their news from (ex. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC). Citizen journalism is now being embraced, but with moderation from sites and other news sources.
Interestingly enough, newspapers are not yet a thing of the past. Most of the news that we consume originated from news organizations (as much as 85% of Americans read info. originally from newspapers). Newspapers preserve the “iron core of news that serves as a watchdog over government..”, as journalist Alex S. Jones put it.
Looking towards journalism as a possible career, it’s important to know what you’re getting into. Print jobs will slowly decline and the rise of television and web-based jobs will continue to rise. This is why it’s important to understand the fundamentals of writing for multiple platforms of media. Honing your skills and staying up on the latest news stories are top priorities if you want to go anywhere in this business.
