Death of traditional media has been greatly exaggerated, report says.
There’s a headline to catch your attention. Well, mine. It was in the newsreader this morning, from the local daily, and turned out to be a piece that’s more interesting on first read than it is after a little thought. And the headline, it turns out, is a bit of editorializing, because there’s nothing about the “death of traditional media” anywhere in the story.
According to the article:
If you’re reading this in the newspaper you’re among the 95 per cent of Canadians who turn to traditional media for your general news.If you’re reading this online, you could be among the 42 per cent who use some form of online media for their news
(The figures are from “the national media choice and trust poll conducted by IDC Canada for the Information Technology Association of Canada.”)
The poll is somewhat interesting in the breakdown of news sources. But, I’d be worried if I were still in the newspaper business, because of this:
When respondents were asked where they generally go for news, more than 70 per cent – in all age groups – cited television. ~snip~ Among all age groups close to 50 per cent said they read the newspaper and among the 50-plus crowd, that climbed to more than 60 per cent.
So the number of people polled who “generally go to newspapers for news” didn’t even hit 50 per cent. Depressing, considering the number of newspapers available to most Canadians.
The survey might provide an interesting snapshot, but by focussing on which media people are using, it misses the way the search for news has changed. This morning, I learned about the assassination of Benazir Bhutto from Boing Boing. I went immediately to “mainstream media,” but it wasn’t to my local newspaper. The Vancouver Sun was third on my list, after the New York Times and the Globe and Mail. (Interestingly, the thought of switching on the TV never occurred to me.)
But then, I’m an oddball. According to the newspaper report:
Online news attracted more than 30 per cent of respondents across all age groups except for those who are 50 and over.
But even at “50 and over” I don’t think I’m unique in my media habits (almost exclusively focussed online) nor in the fact that while my prime sources for in-depth reporting are the traditional media, they are not always (or even often) the local reps of that traditional media. Others do a better job of national and international coverage and much of what really interests me about where I live — the news of my neighbourhood — is rarely covered by anything but the “untraditional media,” primarily bloggers and cit-j sites.
That, to me, is a much more interesting story.
TAGS: MEDIA, READERSHIP
