Could one click make a difference?
I never really sat back and thought about how I view content on the Internet. Which is surprising considering I have access at my finger tips 24/7.
After reading Joel Achenbach’s article, I feel that if journalists don’t keep up with the rapid consumption of news by readers, that they will be forgotten in a click from a bored reader. I am guilty of being this type of online reader. I won’t even click a link out of a Twitter post if my attention isn’t grabbed in those 140 characters.
On that note…
I feel that if readers aren’t smart about how quickly they are getting their news, they might miss what is really important. With outlets such as Twitter, tons of information is being sent out every second that it makes it almost impossible to consume it all responsibly.
With that said…
The use of online media in a story has made consuming news more interactive for the reader. By using sound bites, video, photos and links to related content many new dimensions can be added to a story that couldn’t be implemented with print.
This creativity makes a sort of competition between journalists, as Bob Steele says in Achenbach’s article, “There is some tendency, if not an outright mandate, to search for eyeballs.” Writers can now see how many people read their article in a given day, in a given hour, even in a given minute. This can give someone an incredible confidence boost if a story is popular while it could put pressure on another to have more traffic on their stories.
For the writer: It is essential that every writer remember that no matter what outlet they are using to publish their work, it is important to always remember that a story must have credibility and cannot forget the facts.
For the reader: Micro-blogs are a good place to start to look for news content, but a reader should always search for the important parts of a story; to get those healthy “five W’s” of information.
