There’s a little more talk than information about the ever-changing media landscape. Two researchers are trying to help journalists bridge the information gap.
Esther Thorson, a professor of advertising and associate dean for graduate studies/research at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, and Margaret Duffy, an associate professor and chair of the school’s advertising department, presented Poynter seminar participants with some nuggets from a forthcoming white paper they are writing.
In the paper, they reviewed and synthesized academic and professional research on behavior in the new media landscape and explain why and how changes are occurring.
“Applying a framework can provide newspapers with winning strategies for building audience,” Duffy said.
It’s important to think of ways society has changed over the last 30 years, said Thorson, who offered primary examples:
- A massive rejection of the “grand news narrative.” When former TV anchor Walter Cronkite signed off the “CBS Evening News” by saying, in essence, “That’s the news you need to know,” that was the grand narrative, Thorson said. Attitudes toward news and news sources have become much more negative since, even as news outlets have multiplied and delivery speed has increased. More people also believe news organizations are biased and they have less faith in the accuracy of news reports. (“There are all kinds of reasons for this,” Duffy added hastily, “that could include reduced expenditures in newsrooms. It’s not that you guys are doing a bad job.”)
- Youth see a reversal in priorities. Youth put music news first, politics last.
- The public’s perception of its need for news is down 6 percent from 1995 to 2005 across all age groups.
- Three additional societal changes have had an impact, including: growing demand for input that is directly relevant to self; the celebrification of society; and the Baby Boomer generation behaving and thinking younger than their parents did at the same age. “They’ll probably be 85 and still be rockin’,” Thorson said.
According to Thorson and Duffy, every instance of media use is motivated by a communication need, so their organizing framework begins with four basic communication needs: connectivity, information, entertainment, and shopping.
How do newspapers fare in this environment?
“The problem is that we’re weak on three of the needs and losing our franchise on the fourth,” Duffy said. “It’s very clear that more and more people are moving to the new media to get their news.”
“Newspapers have long had the franchise on information,” Thorson added. “But the newspapers are even starting to have their lunch eaten in news. Local news still belongs to TV and local newspapers. But their information franchise is being disrupted by the onset of use of other media. All age groups turn first to the Internet for all kinds of information and we’re only going to see that grow.”
Many online experiments bring needs satisfaction and media together in interesting ways. Duffy suggested the following sites as evidence of this:
- Chicagocrime.org: Searchable and customizable
- MediaStorm.org: Storytelling in a different venue with rich media
- Digg.com: Rejects an authoritative news voice by having people vote on what goes on its virtual front page
- NowPublic.com: The mother of all mash-ups for citizen journalists
Another concept Duffy suggested print and broadcast journalists look at is “apertures.” The term describes when there is an appropriate opening in the lives of media users –- and for what. For example, food manufacturers only advertise cake mixes on Thursday or Friday because the accepted wisdom is that consumers only bake cakes on the weekend.
A changing aperture is Sunday. It used to be the day folks sat around and casually read the voluminous Sunday newspaper, rife with advertising supplements. Now many people spend that time surfing the Internet, getting their information, entertainment and shopping online.
“Research can identify aperture information for each information segment,” Duffy said. “This is the way to show advertisers how they can be successful. Use research in specific ways to identify an audience by lifestage, ethnicity and gender. Identify apertures for needs satisfaction and the time that will make users happy.”
