I don't think I'm a particularly good consumer of news. But I, and many others, have good reason for not being the first to know: In today's 24 hour news cycle, the first report is rarely any good. A lot of it is speculation. A lot of it inaccurate. The biggest problem with conventional news for a long time, was that it lacked authentic reaction/perspective. That's why, in my opinion, social media started to be integrated so heavily into conventional television news.
Reactions from Joe Blogpost present another, more serious problem: Most of the time, Joe's is an idiot. I find that for these reasons it's best to let the dust settle on "NEWS ALERT!" stories, and my consumption of information is skewed towards "just-in-time" tidbits like weather, sports scores, financial headlines, etc... The only real-time media that I allow myself to consume is music related. I'll occasionally read a review of an album, track down a leaked single, and so forth. That's one area where I do want to be closer to the front of the wave. Maybe I feel like I've earned the right to have opinions on such things and share them. Me and Blogpost.
I assume that typically most "news" is consumed before and after "work" hours, and that is certainly true for my media timeline. However, do the nature of our funemployment and the proliferation of mobile devices, I'm guessing that MBAs consume a lot of news "on the fly" and as things come up throughout the day. This is most likely the overall trend, as a new generation of media consumers are now accustomed to having their news on-demand. It's not a consumption model that EVER will cooperate with daily newspapers, and I was on the observation deck to watch that Hindenburg crash. Here are a couple (ambitious) thoughts on the news of tomorrow:
1. News will get crappier. Annoying, but the consumer will take the trade off if it's on-demand. This is an economic phenomenon, and only very, very few journalists will be paid what they deserve (or what they thought they deserved) to be paid.
2. Social news is news. Same channels, more interesting players... Just like the kids of yesterday, nobody will know who the Vice President is, but at least we'll know which friend just passed the CPA.
3. Muckraker has new meaning. The social, communications, and electronic movement has made news more transparent. It's much more difficult to get away with something and I don' think anyone would argue against that. The problem now is weighing and evaluating each source to get to the real truth. Soapbox: it is our number one priority as digital-age educators to teach young people how to evaluate and critically assess information.
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