News: Portable, Personalized, Participatory

Our chapter on mass media looks at new technological developments, and a recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism provide fresh information:

The process Americans use to get news is based on foraging and opportunism. They seem to access news when the spirit moves them or they have a chance to check up on headlines. At the same time, gathering the news is not entirely an open-ended exploration for consumers, even online where there are limitless possibilities for exploring news. While online, most people say they use between two and five online news sources and 65% say they do not have a single favorite website for news. Some 21% say they routinely rely on just one site for their news and information.

In this new multi-platform media environment, people’s relationship to news is becoming portable, personalized, and participatory. These new metrics stand out:

• Portable: 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.

• Personalized: 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.

• Participatory: 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.