Posts tagged apps
“ What saddens me is what this experience has made all too clear. Much of what we call news, isn’t. Much of what we Tweet, or post, or chat away at under the guise of news, are distractions.”
Dan Rather: Watermelons, Washington, and What We Call News Today
Mr. Rather makes some excellent points in this editorial, though he only alludes to what I think is the heart of the matter: By absorbing our news out of context, we lose the context of each piece of news.
Let me elaborate. If the only way one gets their news is via RSS feeds in a reader, Twitter summaries, and headlines in an iPhone app or other similar devices, one gets summary after summary of usually unrelated events.
Now, this is not the way most people get their news - not yet. Most people still consume only a handful of sources, be it a cable news network, the local news report on TV, the local newspaper (where one still exists), or the website of a select few favorite news sources. Even those who read truncated RSS feeds or Twitter links will click through to read more on a topic - if they’re interested in that topic.
However, the damage is done when there are so many news sources that the reader is overwhelmed with choice, and to cope and stay “informed” or on top of their feed, they only read headlines and first paragraphs, or skim article after article, absorbing nothing but soundbites.
It’s what frustrates me about apps like the Pulse News Reader, that aggregate news articles that look pretty, with little regard for their actual relevance. It’s also what gives me hope in what the iOS platform can do for news, with dedicated single-source apps like McSweeney’s that give you an immersive, often multi-media, experience. I hope the future brings more of the latter.
