My media consumption
After recording my media consumption over a two-day period for a graduate school assignment, I learned that like most millennials, I consume news and information mostly through my smartphone and laptop. However, I also discovered that unlike most of my peers, I still view the nightly and morning television news depending on my schedule.
Online news — which can consist of text and video — best fulfills my needs as a content consumer. Through social media and mobile apps, I am able to seek out information or have the information seek me out via push notifications or email newsletters. I realize that as a journalist and a self-proclaimed news junkie I am a high maintenance content consumer who has high expectations when it comes to information delivery.
Growing up, my media consumption has shifted from reading the newspaper and watching broadcast news to digital journalism and streaming services. The shift from print to digital has altered the way I read and tell stories.
Through my involvement with print, online and broadcast media, I have discovered my passion for online news. Digital journalism is the intersection where print and broadcast converge. News content is ubiquitous. Social media and the internet can be utilized as research and reporting tools. New media has moved journalism from a lecture to a conversation. This conversation can consist of feedback from the audience and/or collaboration with one’s peers.
Perhaps the greatest advantage of producing content for the web is the ability for interactivity. Journalism is now a conversation; it is a back-and-forth dialogue. Searchable data sets, clickable maps, interactive timelines, and polls are just a few ways a reporter can produce a multimedia story with multiple layers of information. Online journalism allows a reporter to provide more depth and detail, more context and more perspective to a story.
Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are the main platforms where I get my news. Numbers show that I am not alone. Sixty-three percent of Facebook and Twitter users get news on the social platforms as of early 2015, according to data from the Pew Research Center. I turn to these sites for breaking news stories, in-depth, longform stories and feature articles.
While social media and the shift to digital have made news consumption easier for the audience, media companies must be cautious. The media must now meet their audience where they’re at instead of trying to direct clicks to their respective websites or risk being left behind. But this inevitably begs the question: Are social networks the new journalistic gatekeepers?
For example, Facebook’s algorithms are constantly changing, surfacing content the company thinks should be seen. “News judgment” is now being exercised by social networks — the new publishers — not the media companies.
As a journalist, this is something I always have in the back of my mind while consuming news in the new media landscape.
