Busy days force craze for flashy media

As a young journalist, I like to think of myself as someone who is constantly in touch with media — from my friends’ posts on Instagram to news stories and Buzzfeed quizzes on Facebook.

After monitoring my media usage for 24 hours, it’s clear my perceptions were wrong. In fact, I’m disappointed with the results of my observation as it seems I am consuming way less media than I hope to be. I believe this has to do with limited time, and how exciting a piece of media is for most people.

When I get to my first class, I read a couple of virtual newsletters from my inbox (regretfully, sometimes in between notetaking). This engagement is probably the most essential media interaction for me because it presents the top headlines of the morning and a basic summary, setting me up for the rest of the day’s news.

Email newsletters are my favorite method of news consumption because my other options (TV broadcasts, and digital and print stories) take up more of my concentration, and deliver about the same amount of information. It is easier to digest the news in concise, informational chunks, especially on a weekday when I am in between classes. Even if I don’t click through on the articles in the newsletter, I am able to comprehend the general essence of the news for that day because of the conversational sentences with each headline that explain the event and the results of it.

After looking through my online travels for the day, I see that the newsletters have done more than set me up for the rest of the day’s news. The newsletters provide a window into my media consumption tendencies. Small, visual and colloquial pieces of information work the best for me. For example, Snapchat stories and social videos on Facebook. Social media has become my main path to news sources.

I found that I was willing to spend more minutes engaging with social media pieces than print, especially Snapchat stories. I like being able to get a bite-size version of newscasts on my phone. For example, the Sports Center Snapchat story has an anchor and several clips of game footage that could easily be shown on TV. Only this time, the anchor is speaking to the viewer like a friend, using informal speech and trendy language. In addition to the content of Sports Center, it’s more convenient for me to catch the latest sports plays and stories on my phone. I have the ability to process this information from anywhere, so I don’t have to wait for a TV and for the scheduled Sports Center broadcast. I also subscribe to a couple of stories which show up with a headline and image at the top of my Snapchat feed every day. This way, it is harder for me to miss or skip a Sports Center piece.

Because I’m already short of free time on a typical school day, I am more compelled to engage with visually enticing, multimedia pieces than regular digital news stories.

Word on the street is that people cannot handle large amounts of information at a time. Whether that inclination is a result of shortened attention spans or busy schedules, it has turned traditional news practices on their heads. New journalists are learning to condense large groups of facts into clear, short and conversational pieces that all people can understand without their full attention.

From my own experiences with media, and from a journalist’s perspective, I’d say entertainment has become a large part of the media landscape. Media that does not amuse, engross or distract viewers from their surroundings will not be popular. Personally, if media is unable to catch my attention within the first thirty seconds to a minute, I will leave it for something else. Information without pictures, videos, audio or flashy graphics will not bring consumers back for more because without those elements, viewers may feel as if they gained nothing from the experience.

Clearly, media companies are most successful when they cater to the preferences of the audience. Today, there are so many options of media consumption that a person can select from every time they open their devices, a luxury that did not exist when broadcast radio or TV were most popular. People engaged with lengthy newspapers or 30-minute evening broadcasts at a time when there was no other option. Our attention-spans have become selective as a result of the amount of choices we have when it comes to media consumption. I’d rather spend time with the interactive Snapchat story than the lengthy New Yorker article. On Snapchat, I am able to vote on polls, see flashy graphics, read short stories and skip past advertisements — everything the average millennial would want when seeking information or news.

The bottom line is that tapping and swiping are faster than flipping pages, and phones are more portable than a large dusty newspaper or TV system.