Journalism Fever
While, at times, I literally run from classroom to classroom, a handful of questions pop up in my head: What am I doing, what do I need to do, who the heck is that? Reading the news is not one of those prevailing thoughts.
For as much I study and produce the news, I rarely think about or at least consciously make an effort to consume massive amounts of media. And that’s when my body isn’t revolting from a viral invasion.
This past weekend I was recovering from a small cold, only to be exposed to a 24-hour stomach flu that left me in the fetal position wondering if Odin had come to whisk me away to Valhalla. Unfortunately, this overlapped with the time that I was supposed to be tracking my media consumption.
My incapacitation caused me to consume the news at a rate that was not completely reflective of my habits. Even so, the sample size is a sort of microcosm of my usual habits when consuming media — usually coincidental and confined to the limited free time I usually have.
Most of my news happens while I’m browsing the internet for entertainment, and not necessarily news. Reddit, a site that transforms into a black hole of time, mainly provides me with funny memes peppered with news articles that every so often interests me.
I don’t utilize the site to its fullest potential by subscribing to subreddits (specialty groups within the site), which would make relevant stories to me appear on the front page, but usually, when I’m healthy, I will click on stories that are of interest to me.
A good amount of my time is also spent Facebook, socializing with friends without really having to socialize. But, one outlet that has really utilized the Facebook auto-play video function well is NBA.com. The professional basketball league posts nearly hourly content that I regularly watch to catch up on what’s going on in their arenas.
Frankly, between the two sites, if I really looked hard enough and was healthy enough to do so, that would be all I would need in terms of news consumption. Reddit and Facebook are basically media aggregators that provide stories that are relevant to my interests making it a two-stop shop for news.
I realize that if that were the case for most people, television would become irrelevant. As good as television is for sports coverage (which is why it may never be irrelevant), watching for news is beginning to seem like something of the past. The constraint of being on television’s schedule of time does not provide the freedom of movement like the internet does.
With media outlets routinely posting their content on the web anyway, television may need to transition to a new era.
Looking at my sad spreadsheet, it would appear that I’m a French chef that doesn’t appreciate French cooking. On the contrary, I do love to stumble upon interactive stories like the Washington Post’s “After the Storm” or in-depth sports profiles like ESPN W’s on Ronda Rousey.
Maybe once I get my strength back, I will have the desire to expand the time I spend on my media consumption.
