Comparing news media

Comparing Print to Television to Online

I was following the coverage of the overhauling of Facebook to see what other people’s reactions have been. Now normally when I see something on TV I’ll stop there, unless I’m really interested then I might check it out online, same for in a newspaper. In doing this you almost always get a “little more” by going that extra distance. Whether it is information, or just a different take on the topic, you’re expanding what you already heard about this issue. After having researched the same story in all three places it feels almost like I’ve missed out on a lot of stuff in the past.

Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting information and in this article I hope to touch on some of them for each.

Print media has been around for so long you have to recognize it right away. It must be doing something right. Print medias biggest strength, to me, is that it’s usually (unless the article is an editorial) giving you straight up information. It’s giving you most of the prominent information to give you a good conversation point. Because some only come out daily, weekly, or even monthly however, some of the information can be dated. Newspapers are great for a lot of information on timely subjects within the range of it being newsworthy, and magazines are better for big editorials and other articles on world events and timeless information. In the case of my research, NY Times did a great summary of what Facebook was doing. No opinions, just facts about the different services they were trying to provide and information on exactly what Facebook was doing, thinking, and planning on doing.

Television news came in next, and also has been around for a while. One of the reasons it’s stuck around is because of how it’s grown. Television news isn’t always as forward, or as informative as the print media but it gives you views on the news as its happening. The news can be happening right this second and sometimes you turn on the television and you see it as its happening, this is a huge thing for some people. Television news is also very good at giving airtime to the people that the current article has affected in some way or another and allowing them to voice their opinions or frustrations on what’s going on. I think the timeliness is a big strength in Television based news, as well as the fact that you can often see others reactions. Where it lacks sometimes though is that straight up hard information, it’s sometimes giving you too much opinion or too much reaction and not enough information to really form your own opinion, or use the information in a conversation.

Online news media is newer on the scene, however it’s really boomed. Able to combine cold hard information, timeliness, and viewer opinion you get the best of all worlds. In the coverage of the Facebook overhaul there was just update, after update, after update that kept me up-to-date with all the information, how people were reacting, videos, sound bites, quotes, everything you could need to not only stay informed and form your own opinion but also know how others are responding. Within the last couple of days there has been article after article with everything from what’s happening, to how people are reacting, even to Q&As on how to make your “new Facebook” look like your “old Facebook.” I really felt like this had the strengths of both print and TV news without any of the weaknesses. The only real weakness I could see for online news is the fact that sometimes it can just be so overwhelming; you’re getting way too much information way too fast and it’s hard to process it all on your own.