As humans, we like to pick and choose what fits us best, and news is no exception.
Traditional media has always given readers what the media organizations themselves decide to provide. Consumers could choose which newspaper to buy and which articles to read, but not what that newspaper contains.
It is my view that news is going the way of the news aggregator—any program that lets readers request what kinds of news they want, and then compiles stories from many news sources.
I may stand as a case study of my own point. The news I am most likely to read in the morning is any story that comes to me in the Google alert I have set for “Peru,” no matter what the source. I only rarely actually visit a news website’s homepage.
I am not alone in this view. Tom Rosensteil, Director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, believes that we are hunter-gatherers and instead of looking to major news organizations, like the LA Times, to tell us what we need to know, we are instead seeking answers to our own questions.
“We are becoming our own editors,” he said in a speech last fall.
This type of news retrieval only works when all types of news, local, national and international, are compiled and disseminated together.
Someone who I think understands the potential of 21st century journalism is Dan Pacheco, the senior manager of digital products at The Bakersfield Californian. His project, Printcasting, which recently won a Knight News Challenge award, helps individuals create niche news publications from aggregated feeds from mainstream media and bloggers, among others.
Why do I think that this is so innovative and actually has the potential to work? Advertising. The unfortunate fact remains that journalism needs money, and because Pacheco has incorporated the potential for advertising income into his scheme using localized and specific advertisements, it might just work.
Projects like Pacheco’s are a reminder that people want to be informed about what they are interested in. I think that Pacheco’s idea faces challenges—like how to gain an audience—but the beginnings of a good idea are definitely there.
If journalism is going to make a successful jump to the new era of Web-based information, we as journalists have to concede that readers are going to pick and choose what they want, and if we don’t cater to them, they will find their information elsewhere.
