The Associated Press just released this research report (.pdf) about the possible direction of news media – A New Model for News: Studying the Deep Structure of Young-Adult News Consumption.
“Newspapers, scheduled broadcasts and even Web sites are giving way to a chaotic system of self-aggregation that is producing disappointing results not only for news producers, but – as this research shows – for consumers as well.”
“Younger consumers are not only less reliant on the newspaper to get their news; they also consume news across a multitude of platforms and sources, all day, constantly.”
“In short, the study illustrated a contemporary news consumption model where the foundational elements for news and journalism – background and next steps – were mostly out of range. Stories “below the fold” seemed in danger of becoming vestigial news organs.”
One problem I have with this report is the characterization of news “consumption.” I think one of the fundamental changes media organizations will have to understand is that media is no longer one side producing and another side consuming. A complex ecology is developing where media creators must be skilled at producing, consuming, and sharing. Simply doing one of these on one platform is no longer enough.
