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The future of news

4 comments on The future of news

The future of news

: I had a great time at Kathleen Matthews’ class at Harvard’s Kennedy School yesterday. Before we started, she showed me a survey of her students showing how few go to networks for news. More big-media folks teaching find the same thing:

“None of my kids read a newspaper, none of my students, but they always knew what was going on in the campaign,” Abramson said. “So I was just curious. Why were they so up on everything? They were saying, ‘The Daily Show, The Daily Show.’”

Hunt said he polled his students — “news junkies” — and got a similar result. Only three students watched network television news on a regular basis, but he said 24 of his 28 students watched The Daily Show.

4 responses to “The future of news”

  1. AndrewBB Avatar
    AndrewBB

    How many read newspapers online is a very legitimate question. Is there an answer in the professor’s study?
    Also, I’m in my early 30s (32). The network news (if we’re talking Brokow, Jennings and Rather) have never been on my radar. I don’t watch. Not out of any anomosity, it’s just a wrong hour and they have never interested me. But do I go to the Web sites for ABC, CBS and NBC news (which is MSNBC.com)? Absolutely.

  2. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I’m in my mid-40s and hardly ever watch the MSM either. Like AndrewBB, the timing is not convenient to me – I have a full and busy life. The internet is always open, and virtually always more current.
    But I have learned over the years to distrust the outlets. What I want is information – I don’t need anyone to tell me how or what to think. I’m quite capable of discerning who I can believe, and of sifting out the reliable data from the manipulative garbage from the campaigns and the media outlets. A few hours researching, threading, and reading on the web each week will teach you a heck of a lot more than spending each night watching ‘The News’.
    I’d like to think that we’re seeing the beginning of the end of the infotainment industry, and that, more and more, folks are going to be doing the research that the web makes possible (and will get better and better at) in order to inform themselves, and make decisions that their conscience and their reason can live with.

  3. Roy Avatar
    Roy

    That the young-uns aren’t watching network news doesn’t bother me. I certainly don’t. But I’d prefer that people said they were getting their news from disparate sources on the Internet. Instead, it appears we have a generation of ‘dailyheads’.

  4. Dishman Avatar
    Dishman

    Neither asked how many get their news online.
    Me, I don’t even own a TV.