News sources

[neb]

The methods people use to obtain news an information has changed with the dawn of digitalised on-demand services. We no longer have to wait for bullitins, which were part of pre-determined television/radio programmes. Instead we can pick and choose what time and what news we read, watch or listen to.

Newspapers are but one medium in decline. Instead today's news consumer prefers the readily-made (and free) content available through the paper's website. There has also been a surge in user-defined services, such as Newsvine. It is argued that this democratisation of news services will lead to a decline in the quality of the journalism and story content.

What I have been leading to is this: How do the frequenters of iLounge.com get their news? Do traditional mediums such as newspapers and radio offer a now defunct service which are wooden in publishing schedule and quantative limits? Are readers weary of media magnates controlling sections of the media? Have your habits changed over the years?

[Jesse Hollington]

Interesting point for discussion.

I've been online for many years, and print news was replaced by the Internet for me long ago. In the case of a newspaper versus the web sites, the experience is mostly the same, except that it's faster to flip through a series of aggregated pages/articles that are of some specific area of interest, and you don't get newsprint all of your fingers

Radio still holds some interest for me, but only because of the different method of consumption. When driving in the car, radio can be useful for immediate current events (things that happen too fast to make it into a podcast), and of course traffic/weather type information. However, I rarely ever listen to traditional radio outside of the car.

Streaming Internet radio has some interest for its content value, but even then I prefer podcasts for their more directed content (I subscribe to podcasts that more specifically interest me, so I know what I'm getting). The only Internet Radio I tend to listen to are background music type stations on occasion when I just want some smooth jazz or ambient type music.

The mainstream TV media holds little interest for me as well, and I seldom visit the CNN or CBC Newsworld type channels. I do watch the local morning news show when I get up every morning, partly because it provides local content, but also because there's a non-news-related flavour to it (like most typical morning shows).

Ironically, while this is on the TV I'm usually also sitting at the dining room table with my coffee and Powerbook getting caught up on the other regular RSS feeds that I visit.

For me, my primary RSS rotation in the morning includes:

• CTV News
• BBC News
• Toronto Star
• Toronto CityNews
• The Register
• Wired
• Engadget
• Boing Boing
• iLounge (of course)

I generally skim through the headlines/abstracts in each of these in Safari, taking time to read specific articles that are of interest to me and just quickly glossing over the rest. The more techie feeds like Engadget sometimes only get checked every three or four days as opposed to every morning.

My Podcasts tend to be less of the current affairs variety, and more along the lines of interest news... Things like Slashdot Review, CBC Quirks and Quarks, CBC Toronto This Week, and the CityNews Daily Video podcasts (that last one being specific daily news, but I tend to just download it in case I'm on the go and don't have time to catch up on the local news -- most of the time it doesn't get watched on the iPod itself).

[LukeA]

Mine:

Morning:
none

Afternoon:
C-SPAN (TV)
Think Secret
Engadget
Fark
iLounge
Local News (TV)

[bdb]

My wife has this addiction to TV news. Its on constantly...nearly all day. Its mostly just a bunch of small "news bites", often the daily coverage of ongoing sagas of various sensational, unusual incidents (child abductions, serial killers, etc) in other parts of the country. I'm sick of it. All she sees of the world is constant dystopia, and I'm seeing it affect her attitude toward the world. I've been urging her to cut back.

Foxfire came with an RSS feed from the BBC, so I check that daily. It still usually has very little to do with my life, but at least its relevant to the world around me. We get Time magazine, and that provides some depth of discussion of the issues that is missing from TV or webpages.

I also check tech news via Digg, Wired, & The Register.

[LukeA]

Originally Posted by bdb

My wife has this addiction to TV news. Its on constantly...nearly all day. Its mostly just a bunch of small "news bites", often the daily coverage of ongoing sagas of various sensational, unusual incidents (child abductions, serial killers, etc) in other parts of the country. I'm sick of it.

That's why I stopped watching CNN. I don't care about Anna Nicole Smith or a raccoon on a bridge.

[jedk]

Originally Posted by neb

Newspapers are but one medium in decline. Instead today's news consumer prefers the readily-made (and free) content available through the paper's website. There has also been a surge in user-defined services, such as Newsvine. It is argued that this democratisation of news services will lead to a decline in the quality of the journalism and story content.

Interesting point. I work for a large regional newspaper company - Rural Press - and not long ago I attended a seminar, where one of the topics was the increasing trend for people to get their news online.

To summarise some of the main points that were made at the seminar: in simple terms, newspapers aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. They’re here to stay, for a long while at least.

For many people, the time it takes to get online and gather their news is outweighed by the time-tested tradition of having a newspaper in your hands with information that is still fresh (my paper publishes three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday).

People are used to newspapers, and not everyone has instant access to the internet. Many people still prefer to get the paper to read current news rather than having to be up-to-the minute 24/7.

Photographs will never look as good online as in print.

Also, most newspapers do not publish all of their content online. My paper posts the first paragraph or two of the main articles in the latest edition, with a line “Full story in SHN 10/04/2007…” or whatever the day may be at the end.

[mrdantownsend]

I''ll be completely honest

Whenever I watch TV,I usually watch the news.

I love to watch this program called "sunday morning" or something, which is obviously placed on sunday mornings

Real nice and interesting stuff, not smothering you with Anna Nicole, Missing Persons, or The War

and I really like PBS 13, because it seems to have the least bias

I usually flip through the news stations, not knowing what network I'm watching

Almost all technology news is either found here or by digg or googe search, because anyone knows that people on networks know nothing about technology

And one show I can tell you I HATE is Nancy Grace

and oh yea, I almost never read the newspaper, it seems like too much crap to flip through.

[Kristiano]

Morning:
The New York Times
The New Yorker
The Straits Times

Other:
The Economist

[yinyang]

local news - couriermail.com.au
national news - smh.com.au
world news & football - guardian.co.uk
football - soccernet.com
tech/apple stuff - ilounge.com; tuaw.com; engadget.com; watchster.com; mactalk.com.au
almost everything else - whirlpool.net.au

i don't have a TV

[melsmusic]

I rarely watch TV, news or otherwise. I never have the TV on during the day. It's either music, podcasts or nothing. I do record the half hour local news every day and play it back in fast forward so I can stop at the stories I'm interested in like Anna Nicole Smith & the racoon on the bridge. No seriously, I just look for stories that affect us directly that our local & state Government are screwing up this week.

I don't buy any magazines, and haven't for many years as they are just all full of rubbish. Mens magazines are different, and I did subscribe to The Bulletin, but found I just didn't get around to reading it most of the time and cancelled it. I buy the paper once a week, get the free TV guide to again hand pick any shows I wish to record. I always watch 60 minutes as I find their stories are mostly interesting. I'm also addicted to Desperate Housewives, but that isn't falling into the news sector.

Podcasts I download are:

Rock & Roll Geek Show (that's for fun)
ABC News Nightline (for World News)
Triple J Highlights (Social issues)
Andrew Denton (a bloody good interviewer)
Monica Attard ABC Local Radio (mostly Political & Current Affairs interviews)

I do glance over the online news, but again hand pick what I want to read and wouldn't spend too much time on it.

[toothpaste]

Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
The Economist

[SuperNYK992]

fox news - pretty much every news station is biased to the left, with the exeption of fox, which as we all have heard from various left extremists, is right. but i'd rather watch that then any liberal garbage.

Radio - The savage nation, Bill O' Reilly, Laura Ingraham.

New York Daily News. - how do you read the times?

[pohatu771]

I usually get the information from radio or TV, but go online to read details... at 11, I'd rather watch The Simpsons than the news (Fox news is on at 10 around here, when I'm still busy).

My local newspaper is very much local... there is rarely anything in it that has happened more than fifty miles from here.

[SuperNYK992]

^ your 11? wow. i'm 14 and quite frankly, am suprised you didn't say "y watchh neting else, MTV is te best!!!! OMG LAGUNA BEACH!!! good to see literate kids these days.

But anyway, i don't read my local newspaper, i like to read the daily news or post, times for me is a bit too focused on insulting Bush every chance they get.

[RatherPlayHalo]

CNN(.com)
Fark.com

I read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (paper edition) almost daily as well. I am by no means a ludite, but I find it extremely relaxing to sit back and read the printed edition of the local paper.