

TV News is Ridiculous Compared with Internet News - NathanKP
http://www.experimentgarden.com/2012/02/tv-news-is-ridiculous-compared-to.html

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zowens1190
This article highlights a real generational gap I never considered until
earlier this year.

I started Googling when I was about nine years old, at the latest. My brother,
who is five years old, has used Google since he was three or four.

My entire life, I have been able to investigate my interests and other bits of
information, with individual independence. If a news story interests me, I
have been wired, by habit and what-have-you, to seek out the info when and
from whom I want it.

A local news program once teased a fluff piece about some record-breaking
octopus. They were hoping it would entice viewers enough to sit through the
commercials and watch it when the program returned. In the past, this would
have been the case.

But instead, because that subject piqued my interest, I went ahead and looked
it up very quickly online. Immediately, through Google News, I had access to
dozens of articles to whet my appetite. I got the jist of the subject, and
then I moved on. All of this before the commercials on TV were over.

When the program returned, they dedicated seconds to the subject, and moved
on. There was a huge difference between what I knew about the subject from
what I learned online, and the very little I would have known if I had only
relied upon the TV news segment. Entire generations are wired to rely on the
latter, the youngest ones are wired to Google.

My parents, who are still rather young--they are both 41--are more likely to
just wait for the news program to return.

These cultural differences blow my mind. They remind me how dynamic culture
is, and how much it has changed even throughout the course of my short life.

I told my five-year-old brother a couple weeks ago, that the internet is not
very old, and there was a long time when people did not have it. It was hard
for him to grasp a time when people did not have Google. I have to admit, I
ask myself that very same question all of the time.

(Head Explodes)

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NathanKP
Exactly. I can foresee that soon television news programs will find it harder
and harder to attract viewers as the newer generation with its use of the
Internet for news turns away from the television networks.

It'll be interesting to see what they do to stay alive, and if they try to
fight back against the internet like the movie industry is doing.

