Our second “focus group” of journalism students
reports on their media consumption habits.
Please respond with specific questions/issues
you would like them to address.
Our consumption of the media.
If our consumption of the media is anything to go by, newspapers in their current form will be dead before tomorrow’s 9am bulletin. Instead their online website supplements will take over and become news media agencies’ primary source of income.
As a generation who barely remembers not having a computer in the home, online media has surpassed newspapers in providing an in depth analysis of local, national and international news. As journalism students, we recognise that a newspaper will provide us with a much clearer overview of yesterday’s news than simply scanning a news website’s online page. However the ease, convenience and cost of reading the news online has meant that hassle of reading the newspaper is only forgotten on weekends.
The Weekend Australian’s recent rise in sales might be our strongest piece of evidence that the time consuming nature of sitting down to read tiny print, and risk bumping someone when you turn the pages has seen newspapers relegated to the weekend morning breakfast. One of the points almost every member of our group mentioned was the convenience associated with online news. Despite having newspaper subscriptions, simply going to our university store to collect them has become too much effort. Why even bother getting the subscription in the first place if everything that is in the newspaper gets published online and can be accessed for free. That sentiment, while important with struggling students, appears to now fall in line with the mainstream. Everyone wants up to the second news, on demand, when it suits them. In some ways it’s possible to suggest that online news allows us to be better informed about certain issues than reading a newspaper because at least with online we might actually bother.
Our group discussed the issue of timetables and schedules that inhibit us from sitting down to watch a half hour television broadcast, in the same way sitting down to read the paper was too much hassle. Having said that it is important to note that everyone in our group mentioned that they enjoy listening to either ABC Radio National or a local radio station to keep up to date with the news. The immediacy of radio, something that also appeals to us in online, means that a five to ten minute news bulletin keeps us up to date without much effort on our behalf. The conversational tone of the newsreaders keeps us interested and engaged and in the case of Radio National, we’re not having to listen to trivial entertainment news about who Britney is dating at the moment. When it comes to local news in the Central West we prefer radio to television, with newspapers not even rating a mention, primarily due to their price.
Two other issues popped up at our meetings. The first was that online sites often published stories produced by AAP as breaking news and it wasn’t until hours later did they have their own angle or even rewrite of the story. This aspect leads most of us to check different online sources. It certainly could be argued cross-referencing stories is something only done by journalism students, but with it being so easy to simply google news an issue, who knows how many people are doing it. The second issue was that we would often find ourselves watching or reading news produced by international news channels, such as the BBC, instead of going to local news organisations first. With fewer and fewer foreign correspondents writing for Australian news agencies, students are turning their attention to online sites whose reporting and analysis of international news is in no way comparable to what is offered at home.
We see the future in online, but we still do believe there’s a big future for radio. However, newspapers who don’t invest in strengthening their online capabilities will just fall behind the news agencies who provide their breaking news.
Compiled by Tayissa Barone, Emily Boyle, Courtney Colborne, Shannon Cuthbert, Elizabeth Grant and Peter Kesina.
