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From the Project for Excellence in Journalism comes a study describing differences between the kinds of news stories featured on the web sites of traditional media outlets, and those featured on user-driven sites like Reddit, del.icio.us, Digg, and Yahoo! News. The authors of the study describe it as providing some initial answers to the question: “What would a world in which citizens set the news agenda rather than editors look like?”
The study is certainly worth examining in detail; one of the things I noticed immediately was this:
The three top categories for news stories presented by the media outlets the study examined were: foreign news stories, disasters and accidents, and U.S. foreign affairs. The three top categories among the first three user-driven sites listed above were technology and science, lifestyle, and government.
I might have liked to see technology and science separated for the purposes of the study, though I can understand the difficulties in making that separation. I would expect, however, that the technology-orientation of user-selected stories was stronger than that of science. Regardless, it’s not at all surprising to me that stories tagged on sites like Reddit, del.icio.us, and Digg are heavily weighted toward technology: I think the simple fact that the technology is still new to so many people is reflected in a sometimes restless and nearly frantic gathering around stories that help us all understand it and use it better. I know I’m abstracting from personal experience here, possibly a little too much, but when I look at at my own stories on del.icio.us, I see a pattern that very closely mirrors the results of the study. Why? Well, because like so many people I’m trying to understand how to use the technologies, trying to find the best ways to use them, and I’m still asking myself questions like “What the hell is StumbleUpon for anyway?”
As is the case with all emerging technologies, though, this discovery phase is only temporary (good luck defining “temporary”); and if the authors conduct the study again in a few years, I would be very surprised if the categories of user-tagged stories don’t start to shift. While it may still not necessarily reflect the selections being made by traditional media, I’ll bet you’ll see a convergence between the two. The study lays some excellent groundwork for the future research; and that may even be more valuable even than it’s current conclusion:
For now, the percentage of Americans who rely exclusively on news from user-driven sites is just a fraction of what it is for mainstream news sites. And in this increasingly fragmented era, many who visit Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit may also be reading the online versions of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. But whether or not we see further divergence between user-driven sites and mainstream media over the next few years will surely remain a key question for researchers, journalists and of course, citizens.
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But whether or not we see further divergence between user-driven sites and mainstream media over the next few years will surely remain a key question for researchers, journalists and of course, citizens.
That is the question. A survey done yearly, and I can’t reference now, but I’ll try to find it as I posted on it some time back, showed that the major media outlets were still the main place people pulled news - with google pulling from them as well. The major news outlets are now online… I think that what will happen is that they will still be most used just online. As the population of internet users grow though it will be interesting to see where it leads.
I think you could ask three different notables on the subject and gt three different answers but as the less tech inclined come on board I’m sure changes will take place. It will be fun to watch.
As for the convergence - Digg especially was started mainly by science tech geeks leaning heavily toward tech geeks I’m not sure as I don’t use it much, but originally the only categories were techy/ geeky science related.