Interesting though from Wendy, a friend of mine. Twenty years ago the TV news was on at set times. Roughly 6.00pm and 9.00pm. As a result we were somewhat forced to pay attention. Now news is instantly available anytime, anywhere, and as a result our attention is diluted. Assume for a second that this is true. Where does this go?
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This is exactly why live sport has such a high (cost) premium.
It’s also (probably) why kids can describe more detail about a sports game than other subjects – because they are ‘forced’ to pay attention, because it’s live and let’s face it – who wants to pause a live game like a drama programme?
Sports rights will continue to increase in price.
Back to news for a moment. The news media has become an industry of self-fulfilment. When 24 hour news says there is a problem with Iceland or Ireland, who is going to invest in an Icelandic or Irish bank? I’m not saying either of those countries were totally fine beforehand, but the media certainly didn’t help.
The news media will continue becoming more powerful and sway our opinions. The iPhone and iPad have both been #1 news stories on the BBC site when launched. That kind of publicity is worth it’s weight in pixels/bytes/iPhone batteries.
I was going to trash this post because I thought it was weak but your comments make it worth leaving.
I think the constant availability of news does devalue the content and has forced the news sites/media to put anything and everything they receive as “news”. The higher the demand to supply the news machine, the less selective they have become in the stuff they put up. Hence we get a plethora of stories in the “lamestream” media covering issues that are, in truth, irrelevant – things like “such-and-such are engaged/flirting/separated/divorced”, we get phenomena like Paris Hilton and cronies, we have little “true” news now as it is interspersed with junk and the filtration is now down to the consumer, not the producer/director.
It is, in effect, contributing to the dumbing down of society. News used to be worth waiting for and worth watching. Now it is pretty much a gossip vehicle with advertorial spun through it.
The dedicated news channels are no better and don’t really deliver much as, if they want to focus on real news, they have to have it on such high rotation, you’re up to date after 10 minutes and therefore tune out.
Your friend Wendy has made a very valid and sensible observation.