Online News Consumption

[Locutus]

15) It's both. Of course, less packaging means more work, it's harder to find what I'm looking for. But it also means that there's noone else making choices for me: I make my own decisions about what is and isn't interesting and I get multiple angles on the same issue. And that's extremely good: for most news papers and tv stations I'm not happy with 90% or more of their content. For some I'm happy with a good portion of their content, but they still only give me a fraction of what I want. IMO there's more good than bad to it, but it's both there.

16) As I said, I use different media for different things. For those things for which I mainly rely on tv/papers/whatever, they are (almost) my exclusive source of info. If I ever need more info than the usual medium offers, I will go on the net to look for more, usually from BBC News, Google News or their equivalent Dutch sites (but depending on the subjects maybe also other sites, especially if URLs were mentioned in the offline media).

For those things for which I mainly rely on the Internet, I usually get the info off the net long before it makes it into papers or news broadcasts on tv. For international news I mainly rely on 'Poly and for a lesser extent on BBC News and Google News to provide me with info. For technology news, I have 3 Dutch websites that I visit regularly (if I have time daily) which are my main source of info. If a story leaves me wanting more, I first check the source they're quoting from (if there is one), then the other two sites (as there's some overlap between them), then I specifically look for them on other sites like Slashdot, Wired, or Google (or something else depending on the topic).

17) Facts. Or very informed, intelligent opinions, but they are rare and one tends to come across them only by chance.

[Sava]

Can I really be arsed to answer all those questions?

[thamis]

Sava: Nobody forces you to answer anything.

[thamis]

Spiffor: I am using this qualitative survey as a base for a quantitative survey that will come later. The results of this qualitative survey will be discussed in my text, and compared to theoretical approaches as well as the result of the quantitative survey.

I have posted on various other forums as well. There is a slight slant towards gaming forums, but I think especially CIV is a game that has such a wide audience that the results is fairly representative. It need not be representative of society as a whole, but only to netculture, as my dissertation deals solely with netculture.

There are many surveys regarding general media consumption, but there has been none so far in regard to people who "live" online.

[Spiffor]

Thanks for the answer

[Dis]

I still don't know what a blog is. I thought it was a place for teenage girls to talk about killing their mother.

[Immortal Wombat]

(1) Which news media would you define to be most important to you (newspaper, tv, internet, etc.)? Why?
The internet. It lets me choose what news I want to follow, in how much depth, and when.

(3) What type of news do you mainly read on the internet?
(Politics, Entertainment, Sports, Humour, Tech, etc.)
Politics and entertainment I suppose. Humour news I read as humour, not as news.

(4) Where do you think news is most credible (online, newspapers, TV…), and on what outlets (blogs, forums, NY Times, National Enquirer, CNN…)?
Most of the time, the actual facts are all credible. If you mean which sources present the most factual and accurate description of events, then probably newspapers and their sites, followed by broadcasters and such. Reading the news is just as exercise in seiving biases. Forums such as this are pretty much the only places I find news stories to read, and the debate that follows is often very good at letting me arrive at my own opinion of things.

To give a preference, the biases of the BBC best coincide with my own

(5) Do you read blogs? How often, in relation to traditional media consumption?
No. I find that most blogs that comment on the news are either written by hyperbolic idiots, or are dreadfully tedious, or both.

(6) What types of blogs interest you?
Funny ones, with little or no relevence to anything.

(7) Respond to this statement:
“The journalist of the twenty-first century will need to become a much more skilful storyteller, one who can not only weave together the facts of an event or process but connect those facts to a much wider set of contextualizing events and circumstances.” (Pavlik, J. V., Journalism and New Media, p. 218)

The journalist who wants a job, perhaps. But not the journalist who I want to have presenting me with the news. Weaving I can do for myself.

(8) Do you think first-hand accounts are closer to the truth than a carefully crafted news story?
Not necessarily, because one person's eye view is usually limited. Blind men and elephant problem. They do form a very valuable part of the carefully crafted news story, however, provided the crafter isn't pushing his or her own agenda.


(9) Have you ever contacted a TV station or paper about their news reporting (critique, correction, etc)? Why? What was the response? Is it worthwhile?
Never tried. Unless it directly affects me, I am content to correct it in my own head and who that I know better.

(10) Have you ever contacted an online publication? What was the response there?
Nope.

(11) Can you think of an online news site that uses links effectively?
Other than by putting links within each article, which is usually quite annoying, most sites do ok with the related sites and stories down the side. With FireFox's searchbar, most things don't need to be linked quite so much.

(12) Have you ever sent a news story to your friends by email? What type of story was it? Why that story?
Never.

(13) Do you discuss news more in your online community or in your real-life community?
Online, although grandparents possibly more so. In real-life I get bored very easily. Online as well, but then I can go and post crap for 20 minutes and come back later.

(14) Are you a news junkie or do you feel information overload?
Neither. I can avoid information I don't want, and read what I do. It comes in phases.

(15) Internet news is less packaged. You can find more, but you have to actively look for it. Is that an advantage or a disadvantage?
Advantage for the individual, disadvantage for the Public. People are generally too lazy to read all the minor little stories, but I'm very much in favour of forcibly educating people when they least expect it, by slipping things into newspapers and so on. As long as people know the media are available, I think having an alternative approach to the way television and newspapers do things is a good thing.


(16) Describe the process you go through to find accurate news. First see it on TV, then look it up on the net? Or different?
TV -> 'net -> forum -> other bits of 'net
Or sometimes just
forum -> 'net

(17) Blogs are sometimes seen to be like an Op-ed article. Do you prefer to read factual news or op-ed news?
Factual. I let opinions come out on forums, where they inevitably do.

[Ben Kenobi]

(1) Which news media would you define to be most important to you (newspaper, tv, internet, etc.)? Why?

Internet, followed by TV, and then newspapers.

All the newspapers here have crap news that I get much earlier on the internet. Why should I pay to hear the news a day late, when I can get it for free on the internet?

Secondly, I can get much more balanced coverage, and presentation of issues here on the internet, than I can get with a newspaper.

As for TV news, I rank it higher than newspapers because I use it more than I do the papers.

(2) If your answer to (1) was not internet, define the internet’s position in news gathering for you.

I get access to new sources not deemed 'mainstream' by the papers here in Canada, that are much more balanced and comprehensive.

The price is right, it's free, and I can get it whenever I want, not when the paper gets delivered.

(3) What type of news do you mainly read on the internet? (Politics, Entertainment, Sports, Humour, Tech, etc.)

Politics, Sports, and commentary. I have found the commentary here to be unparalleled, so much so, that I can hardly bear to slog through a newspaper.

Sports, if I want to know more about NFL football, I'll talk to Americans, rather than rely upon Canadian coverage.

Politics, I get my news from several online sources that would not otherwise be able to be published in Canada. They cover issues that I find important, in a timely manner.

(4) Where do you think news is most credible (online, newspapers, TV…), and on what outlets (blogs, forums, NY Times, National Enquirer, CNN…)?

Online. Most credible sources, I would rank the forums, followed by the small independent outlets.

(5) Do you read blogs? How often, in relation to traditional media consumption?

Quite a bit more, considering I don't use 'traditional' media outlets often.

(6) What types of blogs interest you?

Blogs that detail situations far out of my own experience. The situation matters more than the quality of the writing.

(7) Respond to this statement:
“The journalist of the twenty-first century will need to become a much more skilful storyteller, one who can not only weave together the facts of an event or process but connect those facts to a much wider set of contextualizing events and circumstances.” (Pavlik, J. V., Journalism and New Media, p. 218)

The historian I believe has this job. A journalist would do well to stick to a balanced presentation of the facts, and to let the readers make their decision.

(8) Do you think first-hand accounts are closer to the truth than a carefully crafted news story?

As a historian, primary sources are generally preferable over secondary sources

(9) Have you ever contacted a TV station or paper about their news reporting (critique, correction, etc)? Why? What was the response? Is it worthwhile?

No, due to the mass of letters, and the cost of publications.

(10) Have you ever contacted an online publication? What was the response there?

Feedback is generally more appreciated.

(11) Can you think of an online news site that uses links effectively?

https://www.lifesite.net

(12) Have you ever sent a news story to your friends by email? What type of story was it? Why that story?

All the time, generally because the topic addresses issues of great importance to me, and to my friends, that we all should be aware of.

(13) Do you discuss news more in your online community or in your real-life community?

Online.

(14) Are you a news junkie or do you feel information overload?

I guess I lean towards a junkie.

(15) Internet news is less packaged. You can find more, but you have to actively look for it. Is that an advantage or a disadvantage?

Advantage. Big advantage.

(16) Describe the process you go through to find accurate news. First see it on TV, then look it up on the net? Or different?

See it on the net, then laugh at the local coverage.

(17) Blogs are sometimes seen to be like an Op-ed article. Do you prefer to read factual news or op-ed news?

Blogs I find to be more factual than what poses for 'factual' news in the papers.

[thamis]

To find an explanation of what a blog is go to www.blogger.com

[thamis]

Thanks for all your replies. I have now moved on to a second survey, this time a quantitative (statistical) survey. I used what I read here to formulate the questions.

Would you please be so kind to check this survey out and tick your answers? It will take less than five minutes!

http://jan.vandercrabben.name/survey/survey.php?sid=28

Thanks!

[thamis]

Oh, I forgot... please tell friends & family about this survey. I need LOTS of answers!

[Dis]

you could make a new thread. some people have a habit of not reading and responding to old threads.

[thamis]

Good idea actually!

[Spiffor]

Wow, very nice interface Much better than my sorry excuse of an online poll for my uni paper

Good luck!

[thamis]

The interface is a free PHP/MySQL program that you can download here: http://www.bigredspark.com/survey.html