Even in the limited two weeks of class time we've had so far, there's been plenty to say about how people consume the news -- where they go to get it, what keeps them reading, and what makes the news relevant and appealing. Obviously, the rise of the information age has completely shaken the news biz, and the question of what to do is still very much up in the air.
After reading the first few chapters of Modern News Editing and the introduction of The Newspaper Designer's Handbook, the thing that stuck in my mind was just how varied the dissemination of news really is. Being a blogger and self-professed e-addict, I was mainly drawn to how editors take their paper's website into consideration while working on a story. Once upon a time, stories could be completed and then pored over, checked for every minute detail until they were finally ready for that last step of ink-on-paper finality. But now, getting the news onto the web while it's hot is absolutely critical in grabbing readers.
But we all know that; no groundbreaking news there. I think the way we present our news is a much more intriguing subject. The web is challenging us to take reporting into an entirely new medium -- sure, it's still written, but how it's written is completely different. Often, it's more informal. Sometimes it's obviously and excusably rushed to the web as fast as is humanly possible. But the design of any website can make even the best story hard to read, and the light from any LCD produces more of an eye strain than a carbon copy. Design is going to be a scorching hot topic for the news as papers continue to shift their focus to the Internet. Over the next few years, I think it'll be interesting to watch how the presentation of news on the web continues to evolve.
Being in the RSS age begs the question "How important is design, anyways?" Plenty of sites merely gather data from around the web. And, in turn, we use an RSS feed to read all their conveniently-collected data without even visiting the site. I think the way these sites are going to grab visitors and make a steady profit is simple. They need a great visual design. What is it that brings the newspaper devotees back to their papers again and again? It's partly routine, but plenty of people just like that format, that presentation.
Even though I'm not a newspaper major, I think the format has a special, unique appeal, a visual style that hasn't quite been matched by web versions of establishments like CNN or MSNBC. Some news outlets, such as The Drudge Report, emulate the columnar newspaper layout in their own way, but the end result is a total mess. When will Web 2.0 elements of visual design and user interaction create the perfect news site that balances aggregated information from across the world with quality writing and editing of its own? And what will it look like? Maybe, despite the vast differences between the mediums, it won't be all that different from the front page of a newspaper.
The audience will always be split between those who just want the news, hard and fast, and those who want to browse and take in a variety of information. I think the design of news sites going forward and the balance they strike between aggregated information and original content written with the web in mind will be crtical to the economic viability of the news industry.
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Interesting post Wes and kudos on being the first (and bravest). However, I think if you dig a little deeper you will find your answer.
ReplyDeleteYou mention web sites that aggregate the news, but there are several sites that create original content. There are several that are formatted like blogs, like fivethirtyeight.com, but there are sites like The Huffington Post that aggregate news and lend a lot of original reporting.
I think your point about design being of primary importance is a unique perspective likely not agreed upon by newshounds. But you may be on to something.