a new model for news - ap, 2008

7/27/2019 A New Model for News - AP, 2008

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A NewModel

or NewsStudying theDeep Structureof Young-AdultNews Consumption

A Research Reportrom The Associated Press

and the Context-BasedResearch Group

June 2008


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Prologue 3Behavioral Field Study

and Findings 5APs Understanding

o the Model 5 1The Telegraph,

a Case Study 66 Acknowledgements 71

C O N T E N T S


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That model, illustrated in a couple o interesting ways in this re-

port, helped validate the mission we had been charting or the digitalmarketplace:

Create content that will satisfy a full range of consum-ers news needs and then build the links that will con-nect people to the relevant news they seek.

Easy to say and harder to accomplish, in a news environment char-acterized by ragmented interests and mostly passive consumptionpatterns across online and o fine news venues. The research dem-onstrated quite convincingly that the old models or packaging and

delivering news were not connecting with the audience now comingo age around the world. The habits o these young consumers areradically di erent rom those that have characterized news consump-tion or generations. Newspapers, scheduled broadcasts and even Websites are giving way to a chaotic system o sel -aggregation that isproducing disappointing results not only or news producers, but asthis research shows or consumers as well.

For the World Editors Forum, our initial research has been expand-ed in two important ways. First, the basic model o consumer behav-ior that emerged rom the original project became the oundation ora broader set o ndings and recommendations designed exclusively

or release at the orum. Second, we have provided a summary o APsown analysis o the model and the practical work that has taken shapein response to these and other digital trends. As urther grounding orthe ndings, a brie case study o The Telegraph o London is in-cluded to illustrate how one well-known newspaper has dealt with thekind o challenges the model highlights.

Special thanks go to our partners in this research, the Context-Based Research Group o Baltimore, Maryland.

AP Strategic Planning | June 2008


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A New Model or News Studying the Deep Structure of Young-Adult News Consumption

A Research Report from The Associated Press and the Context-Based Research Group

5

The Associated Presscommissioned Balti-more-based Context-BasedResearch Group to conducta cultural science study

in the parlance o thediscipline, an ethnogra-phy ocusing on the news

consumption habits o young digital consumers insix cities around the world.The drive or this researchcame rom the recognitionthat a signi cant shi t innews consumption behav-ior is taking place amongyounger generations.

The trends had sur acedclearly across any numbero quantitative measures

o media usage and wereeven clearer in everydayli e. Younger consumers,ages 18-34, have adoptedways o getting their newsthat are much di erent

rom those o past genera-tions. Younger consumers

are not only less reliant onthe newspaper to get theirnews; they also consumenews across a multitude o plat orms and sources, allday, constantly. Among thekey touch points in the newenvironment are onlinevideo, blogs, online socialnetworks, mobile devices,RSS, word o mouth, Webportals and search engines.

This shi t is triggering

adjustments, even revolu-tions, at media companiesin every part o the world.Amid its own revolution

rom predominantly print-based services, AP soughtContexts help in gaininga deeper and more holistic

understanding o youngconsumers. How is newsread, viewed and used bythis generationthrough-out a typical day?

The projects originalobjectives included docu-menting the requencywith which participantssearched or or consumednews; identi ying thenews sources that young

News Consumption Behaviorso Young Adults

An Anthropological Study

Overview and Study Objectives


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consumers turned tomost commonly, as wellas those sources that theyavoided; identi ying themeans they used to accessthese sources; examin-ing pre erred plat orms

or news consumption,especially new and/or

nontraditional channelsand devices; and expand-ing APs understanding o

what constitutes news oryoung consumers. In short,the project sought to put ahuman ace on 21st centurynews consumption. What isthe new ace o news?

The original researchwas completed in the sum-mer o 2007 and produced

a model or digital newsconsumption that AP in-tegrated into its strategic

planning process.In 2008, AP and Context

re-engaged to analyzethe eld data urther andextract ndings and rec-ommendations that couldbe shared with all thoseinterested in pursuing newapproaches to news gather-

ing and delivery.


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Why Ethnography andAnthropology:

Getting to the Deep Structure

To achieve its objec-tives, the AP un-derstood the need to takea look at consumers roma holistic perspective, todelve into their li estylesand how their current at-titudes and belie s tie intolarger cultural news con-sumption constructs on aglobal scale. To accomplishthis goal, the AP turned tothe discipline o anthropol-ogy, enlisting Context toper orm an ethnography o contemporary news con-sumption behaviors.

Ethnography is a re-search tool that comes romthe discipline o culturalanthropology and is based

on the simple, yet pro ound,premise that to truly un-derstand human behavioryou need to witness it rsthand. Anthropologistsunderstand that to uncoverthe deeper structures thatguide a culture it is neces-sary to live among the na-tives. By living among thenatives you come to learn

1) what people do versusthey say they do and

2) the why, or underlyingmotivation, behind peoplesactual behavior.

Ethnographic eld work,there ore, involves go-ing into peoples naturalsettings versus studyingpeople in a controlled envi-ronment.

But ethnography alone is just a technique, a processby which thick and richdescriptions are providedthat illustrate peopleslives, emotions, social rela-tionships, decision-makingprocesses and more. Thesecret to ethnographylies in anthropologicalanalysis. Anthropologistsconducting ethnographicresearch and analysis get towhat Context calls peoplesDeep Structure theplace beneath the sur aceo easily observed behav-iors where cultural valuesand individual motivationsare produced and support-ed. One value or under-standing cultural Deep


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Structures is to connectbehaviors with their under-lying motivations, therebyproviding a use ul rame-work or creating productsand services that reachpeople on a truly deeperplane o unmet needs.

To ully comprehend theethnographic and anthro-pological research process,it is help ul to use the meta-phor o a tree [right]. Thegoal is to unearth the treesroots. The roots in thisanalogy represent the DeepStructure that supports theculture under study.

Anthropologists rely onthe ethnographic methodto identi y, describe and it-eratively interpret behavior

the trunk o the tree andthe material culture thatcomprises the limbs andthe leaves. Material culturein an ethnographic studyis the stu people use.In consumer anthropology,

most o the stu equalsproducts and services at

peoples disposal.

Unlike the roots o thetree, the trunk and thelimbs and leaves are thepart o the tree you canwalk around, touch andsee and describe in close

detail. As anthropologistsbegin to see more and more

behaviors and examples o material culture, patternsbegin to emerge. The pat-terns that emerge rom theethnographic investigationare the mani estation o Deep Structure or in thisanalogy, the trees roots.

The ethnographic ap-proach is deductive and

BehaviorsWhat do

people do?

Deep StructureWhy do people

do what they do?

MaterialCulture

What productsand services do

people use?

Roots o ethnographyAnthropolgists compare peoples behavior to parts o a tree some are obvious, some are hidden.

Above the sur ace, anthropologists observe peoples behavior. Belowthe sur ace, insights are drawn on underlying motivations.


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iterative. As the patternsrom the research start

to take shape and suggesta certain structure, thenanthropological and socialtheory guides the explana-tory models that emerge.Simply put, the resultingmodels rom ethnographic

and anthropological studiessuggest:

1) the underlying deepstructure or why people dowhat they do and

2) what in peoples lives be it products, services,institutions (e.g., educa-tion, government, religion,

economies) are working ornot working.

Most important, anthro-pological investigationsprovide a plat orm to createchange, grounded in a trulydeep understanding o hu-man behavior.

To get at the Deep Struc-ture behind news consump-tion, an ethnographicproject was designed toexplore a diverse group o participants, using a rangeo methodologies includ-ing sel -reported real-timebehaviors, direct observa-tion and, to complete theprocess, in-depth anthropo-logical analysis.

To gather as broad agroup o participants aspossible, 18 participantswere recruited betweenthe ages o 18-34 (with anemphasis on the 18-24 age

group), representing a mixo ethnicities and gender.Each participant had tohave access to the Internetand in addition to check-ing the news at least oncea day, participants hadto report accessing newsthrough means other thanprint, television and radio.This bias was assumed tocapture young people whowere both connected anddigital consumers o news.

The participants wererecruited in three countries

United States, UnitedKingdom and India and sixmetropolitan areas. Hous-

ton, Silicon Valley, Phila-delphia and Kansas Citywere chosen in the UnitedStates to provide a broadgeographical sweep whilestaying away rom citieswhere the infuence o major media might be moreprominent. Brighton, Eng-land was selected becausethe city is quickly attract-ing a young new populationwith its universities andestablished cultural li e.In India, Hyderabad was anatural choice, as the infuxo technology companieshas brought extensive ur-banization.

Methodology


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To gather a ounda-tion o in ormationabout the participantslives, particularly theirbehaviors, values, news

sources and news consump-tion habits, all the partici-pants in the study receiveda Send-Ahead BehavioralJournaling Exercise en-titled My News. To com-plete the journal, partici-pants received a Polaroidcamera and set o instruc-tions on taking pictures o their daily lives over the

course o three to ve days.

Participants completedthe behavioral journalby addressing a series o questions both visuallyand textually. The journalbegan by asking them how

they would represent them-selves, ocusing on whatwas important to them,their likes/dislikes, valuesand philosophies, as well

as who and what made uptheir social networks. Mov-ing more directly into thenews realm, participantsalso represented what theyconsidered to be news,how they de ned newswor-thiness, the infuence o plat orm and channel ontheir personal de nitionso news, their pre erred

means or accessing thenews and how and whenthey disseminated news.Finally, participants wereasked to choose a storythat they would typically

ollow and then track thisstory over a ull news cycle,

making note visually andtextually o when, how andwhy they searched or andaccessed updates on thestory.

The exercise, ollowed bya home visit rom a Con-text anthropologist, wasintended to prompt par-ticipants to begin thinkingabout their news consump-tion behaviors, motivationsand habits, as well as theirperceptions o what consti-tutes the news. The images

and the description pro-vided by the participantsyielded rich data about whothey are and the role thatnews consumption wasplaying in their lives.

My News Send-Ahead Behavioral Journaling Exercise


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To capture behaviorsand motivationswhile consumers wereaway rom home and in thevaried and di erent envi-ronments they visit in theirdaily lives, Context had par-ticipants complete a mobileblog and news diary. Forthis structured assignment,participants were asked tocapture moments o newsconsumption behavior, inreal time, over the courseo one weekday and oneweekend day, rom start to

nish.

Context anthropologistsdirected all participants totake pictures that capturedhow they search or orconsume news during the

day. Participants took pic-tures to record their ideaso what news is and why;how, when and or how longthey access news sources;what news channels theytypically utilize; their levelo engagements with di -

erent channels, plat ormsand devices; and the impactthis news had on them,including how they decidedwhether to urther dissemi-nate a piece o news. Byincluding a diary o newscollection pages, partici-pants were able to textu-ally document these newsconsumption moments andmotivations as well.

Participants in the UnitedStates were provided with

a discreet camera phoneto capture these momentsvisually as they happened,while internationally basedparticipants completed theassignment by taking pic-tures to accompany theirnews diary using Polaroidcameras. U.S. participantsuploaded their picturesto a secure Web site at theend o each day, providingcontextual details on thebehavior they captured, us-ing their news diary pagesto ensure that they includedall the details.

For the internationalparticipants, the Contextanthropologist brought thisexercise to li e during thein-home, in-depth inter-view.

News Consumption Mobile Blog and News Diary


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D ay-in-the-li e immer-sions were also con-ducted to obtain rst-handin ormation about newsconsumption, as it actu-ally happened and to put inperspective the in ormationgathered in each partici-pants sel -reported journaland diary. In these sessions,an anthropologist spentpart o the day shadowingand observing participantsthrough their activities.

Context anthropologistsscheduled the observationperiod during the timesthat participants said theyconsumed the news most

requently. To gain a deeperunderstanding o partici-pants lives and how theyinter ace with news, theimmersion encompasseda broad sampling o theirdaily activities, includingwork, school, leisure orentertainment activities, in-teractions with amily and/or riends and more.

Immersion and observa-tion are at the core o eth-nography and the primarytechnique or anthropolo-gists. In anthropology, themethod is called participantobservation. In addition toundertaking direct observa-tion, Context anthropolo-gists were able to engagewith the participants socialli e and participate in col-lective discussions withmembers o his or her wid-er social network. Spend-ing much o a day witheach participant meant theanthropologist was ableto obtain more detailedand accurate in ormation,including both observabledetails (how much timethey spent on each Website, or example) and morehidden details (such as howinteraction with di erentnews media a ected theirconsumption behavior) thatare more easily observedand understandable over alonger period o time.

A major strength romobservation and interac-tion over the ull day isthat researchers uncovereddiscrepancies between whatparticipants said and whatthey actually did.

A structured observationguide was created to covera series o speci c issuesand questions. Topics in theobservation guide includedexploring peoples dailyschedules and how theymoved throughout theirday; what constituted newsthroughout their day; theirpre erred or primary newssources; the plat orms anddevices they actually used

or consuming their news;the times and requencieso their news consumption;the level o engagementwith news sources includ-ing their interaction andinvolvement with thesesources; and their reasons

or the sources and medi-ums they used and theiroverall behavioral pre er-ences.

Day-in-the-Li e Immersion and Observation


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A ter participants com-pleted their journaland diary exercises, Con-text anthropologists wentto their homes, debrie edthese exercises and con-ducted in-depth interviews.

Debrie ng the journalsand diaries provided alaunching pad to conducta conversational interviewdesigned to uncover urtherdetails about how partici-

pants consumed or other-wise received news. Theinterview was structuredusing the same themes asthose directing the immer-sion observation, althoughquestions were introduced

as open-ended to assist par-ticipants in providing vividand sel -directed descrip-tions o their li e experi-ences. The interview alsoprovided the participants

with a chance to explain ingreater depth the behaviorobserved by the anthropolo-gist during the immersionperiod and to discuss therelationship between real-time behaviors and what

participants recorded intheir journals and throughtheir blogs and news dia-ries.

In-home In-depth Interview


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N ews was very impor-tant to Riya, a 22-year-old woman, who, together

with hersisters, movedout o hervillage to livein Hydera-bad. Riya wasemployed asa so tware

engineer and, on a macrolevel, symbolizes the chang-ing Indian woman, who has

come out o her kitchen,venturing into the larger,urban world on her own,

ar rom her parents.In ormation helped Riya

achieve parity with hermale colleagues and urbancounterparts. Riya alsosaid she dreamed o becom-ing a politician or a greatleader someday. She eels

that knowing the news,or staying up to date oncurrent a airs, would help

her pursue and achieve her

goals.Riya had a regular rou-

tine o reading the morn-

ing newspaper be ore work.She also watched televi-sion in her o ce ca eteriaduring breaks and dis-cussed the news with hercolleagues. Back at home,she watched the eveninglocal news with her sisters.She had Internet access atwork and home and usuallychecked the news online

three times a day.In news, Riya was look-

ing or motivation andinspiration: Reading aboutsuccess ul women in poli-tics motivated Riya towardher own goals and gave herhope that it was possible

or her to be somebodysomeday. She also looked

or news to relax. Reading

Riya22

So twareengineer

The ollowing pages summarize the observations o the subjects in the study by geographiclocation. The names have been changed to pseudonyms or the purposes o this report.

Ethnography Participants

Hyderabad, India

CHINA

PAKISTAN

Bay of Bengal

ArabianSea

NEPAL

I N D I A

SRILANKA

New Delhi

Mumbai

Chennai

Hyderabad


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about entertainment andlm news was an indul-

gence that she enjoyed.Film news relaxes me. Ilove to read about gossip inthe lm industry.

Raj, a 22-year-old man,

just received hisbachelorsdegree andwas enrolledalready in am asters o s cience pro-gram in theUnited States.

Raj browsed the Internetor news to improve his

communications skills andkeep himsel ahead o his

riends. Raj saidhe normal-ly checked the news eightto 10 times a day when hewas busy and up to 20 timesa day wh e n he had more

ree time. Rajs pre erredsites were NDTV andYahoo. He was also very

amiliar with The Associ-

ated Press.Raj mostly accessed the

Internet via his personalcomputer. Be ore graduat-ing, he had Internet accessat college and he wouldcheck news at school aswell. Television was nothis primary source to stay

abreast o current events,as he pre erred the Internet

or news. To Raj, know-ing the news is a socialskill because it helped himcommunicate and raise hissocial standing.

To hone his communica-tion skills, Raj charted thedevelopment o news ona whiteboard. In act, he

chose a news topic, wrote itout on a whiteboard in hisroom and then practicedpresenting it to others, ei-ther alone or be ore riends.By working on the way hecommunicated news, Rajbelieved he improved hissocial skills as well as hischances to break throughcaste. Raj elt news could

help him overcome Indiansocio-cultural barriers.

V ijay, a 26-year-old man,was an owner o aninterior design store, whichhe ran rom his home,

located in a

airly wealthyarea in theheart o Hyderabad.Technologi-cally, Vijaywas well

wired, with cable televi-sion and continuous accessto the Internet.

Vijay came rom a large

amily with a airly tradi-tional upbringing. He eltconnected to these rootsbut was also intrigued bythe changes he saw occur-ring around him as a resulto globalization. He reliedon being up to date on thenews as a way o keepingup with his riends and hiswider social network.

Raj22

Mastersstudent

Vijay26

Storeowner


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Vijay began the day byreading the newspaperand watching televisionwith his morning co ee.It was at this time that hewas most engaged with thenews. This was the timethat Vijay used to preparehimsel or his day en-

gaging with the top newsstories and social eventsbe ore meeting clients and

riends alike. Aside romthe morning hours, Vijaywould return to the televi-sion or Internet duringthe lunch hour and be oregoing to sleep to check onin ormation regarding the

stock market or a newsstory that he was ollowingbecause it was important

or his social circle.Vijay was mostly inter-

ested in global businessand political news. Dur-ing the time o this studyhe was actively ollowing

several stories pertainingto car and bike companiesthat had begun investing inIndia. The impact this newbusiness could potentiallyhave on the Indian econo-my was important to himas he has some investmentsin the Indian stock market.

His choice o news

sources was quite interest-ing. One o the rst siteshe went to or news was thetelevision news channelNDTV, an authoritative andwell-respected news chan-nel. In particular, he en-

joyed the show The WorldThis Week, which NDTV

has been broadcasting orthe last two decades. Hissecondary source was Ee-andu, a well-regarded localnewspaper, written in thelocal language o Telegu.His online sources includedNDTV.com and Yahoo.com.


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J ill, a 28-year-old wom-an, was working as anonline insurance broker.

She livedwith her part-ner, Kathryn,in a smallapartmentoverlooking

the EnglishChannel. Jill

was very technologicallyoriented: She accessednews stories online any-time o day. She saw newsas constantly moving, Itsa non-stop machine, justchurning in ormation out.It doesnt matter what itsabout its just churning.

She engaged with the newsapproximately six to eighthours a day. She checkedher e-mail on Yahoo everyhour and thus saw Yahooheadlines up to 10 timesa day. She was primarilyattracted to stories thatpiqued her curiosity.

Jills news consumptionroutine during the day ol-

lowed a pattern: She startedher day by watching BBC

News 24 BBCs round-the-clock all-news channel.She then listened to head-lines on the radio in her caras she drove to work. Hercommute could last 10 to 30minutes. Jill elt that radionews was much so ter andmore humorous than BBCNews 24. In the car, she

listened to BBC Radio Oneand the local radio station

or the southern Britishcounties.

When Jill arrived at workshe immediately loggedon to her e-mail, anotherexposure to Yahoo newsheadlines. Occasionally,she would ollow up withadditional searches on

some o these headlines.She logged in and out o her Yahoo account aboutonce every hour during theday and saw Yahoo Newssheadlines several times.At work, Jill received textmessages and e-mail alertsabout other news as well.During the Wimbledon ten-nis tournament, Jill kept a

live scoreboard on her desk-top to ollow the matches.

Driving back home, Jilllistened to news on theradio. When she got home,she logged into her Yahooand Facebook accountsto get personal news ande-mail, while she watchednews and chatted with herpartner about the days

events.

Jill28

Insurancebroker

Brighton, United Kingdom

ENGLAND

Brighton

SCOTLAND

North Sea

0 100 mi

0 100 km

LondonBirmingham

Leeds

Edinburgh

Manchester

Plymouth

FRANCE


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M ark, a 28-year-oldman, was employedas a project manager or

an onlinetravel agency.Mark startedin this com-panys callcenter and

was proud o the way he

had moved up the ladder.Part o Marks job includedoverseeing a group o 10 to15 people.

Mark moved to Brighton,a more cosmopolitan andliberal city, rom a northernEnglish town with a moreconservative bent. In part,

Mark made the move to dis-tance himsel rom his oldli e and embrace a higherstandard o living.

Together with a couple o riends two years ago, Mark

purchased a house as aninvestment and put 26,000into re urbishing it whilethey lived in it. The projecttook 18 months to nish

and they are proud o the

nal result. The house alsoappreciated in value and isnow worth 100,000 more.

The main room o thehouse was a lounge that

eatured a very large fat-screen TV with a Sky Digi-tal set-top box. Each mem-ber o the household (and

their respective partners)had a laptop, which meantthat sometimes there were

ve laptops on the wirelessbroadband network in thelounge at the same time.

Mark was constantlyusing his PDA and mobilephone to receive alerts and

eeds as well as up-to the-minute scores or ootball.

He even took his PDA to thelavatory and read the BBCheadlines in the way thathe used to read the newspa-per.

Marks news cycle wascontinuous and he spent upto six hours a day search-ing or and receiving in or-mation. Mark was on theInternet most o the day

and used that time to keep

up to date on news coverageand sports-related in orma-tion.

Mark liked his news tobe punchy and point-

ocused. He read the head-lines in the Times and

ollowed up on BBC onlineto nd out whats hap-

pening with stories thathe wanted to track. Marksaid he trusts the BBC andSky Radio ( or sports), ol-lowed by the Times and theGuardian.

Marks news consump-tion was related to otheractivities that he wasengaged in and althoughhe was actively consuming

the news, it was almost al-ways in tandem with otheractivities such as driving orworking.

(At the time o the study,Mark was spending amajority o his time away

rom Brighton, in Peter-borough, to help launch anew product his companycharged him to manage.

The commute would take

Mark28

Projectmanager


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three to seven hours in onedirection depending ontra c and he spent a lot o time in his car and on thephone.)

When he was home inBrighton, he would wakeup to his mobile phonealarm and put on Sky

sports rst thing in themorning. He would putteraround and have a cup o tea while he listened to thelatest sports news and thenswitch over to BBC news.Mark then drove himsel and his two housemates,who also work with him,to work and they listenedto BBC Radio Ones Chris

Moyles Break ast Show.Once at work, Mark

checked BBC News onlineand a ew select sportssites. He ollowed this newsand sports pattern through-out the day. Mark did notuse MSN or Yahoo and didnot look at other news sites.

(I Mark was in Peterbor-ough, his routine was much

the same, except that he re-

ceived a copy o the Timesnewspaper delivered to hishotel room.)

Mark also mentionedFacebook as a source ornews. He recently had a

riend die and ound outabout it rom another

riend who used e-mail via

Facebook to let everyoneknow about the death.Mark admitted to this beinga di cult and potentiallyun air way to tell peopleabout the death. He ques-tioned the use o Facebook

or certain types o news.

A ngela, a 28-year-oldwoman rom Hove,nearby Brigh-ton, was asales andbooking agent

or a travelcompany, spe-cializing insnowboarding

and skiing holidays. Angela

got discounts on trips or

others and her own tripswere ree; she said goes ontwo holidays a year.

Angela worked in alargely emale work orceand her male colleagueswere mainly in managerialroles. When she discussednews consumption at work,

she mentioned that all thegirls were interested in gos-sip, ashion and celebritystu , while the managerswere all interested in oot-ball and more hard-hittingnews.

She lived with her boy-riend in his apartment on

a quiet residential street.They had a big-screen TV

but no computer or lap-top at home. Usually, An-gela woke up to her mobilephone alarm and her part-ner put on Sky News, whichshe watched be ore shewent to work. On her driveto work, she would listen toboth local radio and BBCRadio One, and was a an o the Chris Moyles Break ast

Show.

Angela28

Bookingagent


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At work, she would logon to her PC and checkthe BBC News Web site orthe days headlines. Be orechecking the stories, shelooked at the ve-day ore-cast to see i she would beable to take her horse outthat week. From there, she

would look or other storiesthat she was interested in(such as the fooding inEngland or the MadelineMcCann kidnapping storyat the time o the eldstudy).

At lunch she would buya celebrity/ ashion/gossipmagazine, known in theU.K. as womens weeklies.

She and her colleagueswould read it at lunch andthen discard it or pass it onto someone else.

A ter work, Angela likedto take her horse or aride. On her way back, shedidnt listen to the radioas she pre erred the quiet.

At home she would watchthe TV newscast with SirTrevor McDonald be oregoing to bed.

Angelas Internet use wassurprisingly limited. Sheaccessed news rst thingin the morning and thenglanced at the news on herYahoo e-mail account butnever read it. She did not

subscribe to RSS eeds orany live reports or score-boards, as her work envi-ronment was somewhatmonitored, though she had

reedom to use the Internetat work and no sites wereblocked.

Overall, Angela was not

very engaged with thenews. She listened to andread about the news in themorning and was typicallyinterested in human-inter-est stories or headline newsthat had a British ocus.She had lost interest inanything in the Middle Eastand did not ollow much inpolitics.


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A llen, a 20-year-oldman, was pursuing hisgraduate degree at the Art

Institute o Philadelphia;he studiedgraphic de-sign largelybecause these

skills wouldhelp him earn

a higher salary than histrue passion, zoology.

Allens curiosity andneed to know drove hisnews consumption. Allenenjoyed keeping up withwhat was new in the war inIraq, politics and science.He did not check news on

the go. He did not have anddid not want a PDA, Sure,i I had an iPhone, Idcheck the news on the wayto school. But it is more o a novelty. I doubt betweenhere and school there isgoing to be some breakingupdate on something.

Allen consumed newsonline or about an hour in

the morning a ter he wokeup. He and his roommate

would banter back andorth about di erent head-

lines, articles or videos.In the evening, he wouldspend about two hourschecking the news.

Allens news consump-tion at school was shapedby his other activities. I

I have time in class I mightcheck or breaking news.

But usually, I will check athome because I am workingon other stu at school anddo not have time to browsethe Internet. He checkedthe news three to ourhours throughout the day,one hour in the morningand usually more when I

get back rom school.Allen had several RSS

eeds that allowed him toexclude news that he con-sidered ller. He wasprimarily interested inenvironmental news, globalnews, technology news andsome entertainment (aboutmovies, not about the per-sonal lives o celebrities).

Allen thought o himsel as the ace o news becauseI choose what I read onthe Internet.

L isa, a 27-year-oldwoman, was workingin account management inthe telecommunications

industry.Lisa got her news

Allen20

Graduatestudent

Philadelphia | U.S.

Harrisburg

PENNSYLVANIA

NEW YORK

N.J.

0 50 mi

0 50 km

Philadelphia

MD.

Scranton


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through TV and the Inter-net. She engaged with thenews in the morning whenshe was getting ready or

work. Shesaid that onceat work shewould visithard-news

Web siteswhen shewas not buy.

However, she mentionedvisiting so t-news Web siteso ten during work as well.

In the evening, Lisaturned on the television

rom the time she got homeuntil she went to bed. Hernews consumption clus-

tered around the hours o 4 to 6 p.m. and then rom10 to 11 p.m. She had herPDA with her all the time,checking e-mail and tak-ing calls. I she checkede-mail on her laptop, shemight browse Yahoos latestnews headlines and perusesome stories that appealledto her. She pre erred to go

online rom work becausethe connection was asterand she could watch videosmore easily. Lisa said thatthe content o the storydetermineed whether sheactively sought more in or-mation.

Lisa primarily ollowed

mainstream sources romtelevision, radio and theInternet. She also got in or-mation regularly throughtext messages and phonecalls on her PDA. Lisa gother news rom NBC (TV),CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Ya-hoo, the Philadelphia DailyNews (print) and WKYW(radio). She also went to

YouTube to get videosabout celebrities and othercelebrity- ocused Web sites,such as perezhilton.com.In addition, she occasion-ally watched Univision, aSpanish-language TV chan-nel, because she wanted tolearn Spanish.

Lisas pre erred sourceand plat orm was NBC-TV.

She pre erred NBCs Live atFive newscast, because sheliked local news and likedwatch it on TV when shewas at home. CNN.com andMSNBC.com were her nextpre erred sites or newsbecause she elt they werecredible news sites. She

checked those sites at workwhen she was bored orwhen a conversation witha co-worker prompted her.She pre erred news Websites so her boss would notthink she was looking attabloid Web sites.

Another avorite or herwas Yahoo, which she keptas her home page. She went

to Yahoo.com to check here-mail and she could seeall the current headlines.The Philadelphia DailyNews was a print sourceo news or her. Lisa gotthe paper rom a co-workerand sat at her desk whileshe ate lunch and thumbedthrough it. WKYW on theradio was important in her

Lisa27

Accoun-tant


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23

car and mostly or weatherand tra c.

Lisas PDA was central toher in ormation and news-gathering. Lisa got e-mail,calls or text messages rom

riends about the news,such as the story aboutthe singer Beyonce alling

onstage (during the time o the eld study). Her PDAalso provided her with tra -

c updates when she wasstuck in tra c. YouTubewas also a source or con-tent. Lisa would go to You-Tube a ter hearing about astory to see a certain video(as she did when she heardabout Beyonces stumble).

R obert, a 28-year-oldman, was working 50to 80 hours a week as anevents manager at a per or-mance venue. He usuallyarrived at work aroundnoon a n d would stay untilsomewhere between 10p.m. to 3 a.m. Robert alsoworked periodically as

an independent auditor

or a restaurant that wasan eight-hour drive awayand as a musician and aper ormer. Roberts per-

ormanceswere cabaret-style andincorporatedodd news

about cur-rent events.Robert said

he would only go home tosleep and to eed his cat.He might spend one hourat home a ter he woke upa n d one hour at homebe ore he went to bed.

Roberts social networkwas rooted in his work. He

had worked at the per or-mance venue or threeyears and spent a majorityo his time there. Robertdid not have Internet ac-cess at home, so he reliedon his phone (which here erred to as a Pocket PC)and his o ce computerto keep in touch with theoutside world.

Because Robert was the

only person allowed to ac-cess a PDA on the foor(in the venue where heworked), he had becomethe news node or em-ployees to get news up-dates. Robert would look

or particular news storieson his PDA at work i he

needed to communicatesomething to his employ-ees. Robert engaged withthe news throughout theday via his PDA.

O particular interestwas the connection Roberthas made between textingand checking news. A ter

nishing a text message,Robert habitually hit the

Internet button on hisPDA and quickly browsedheadlines. Other momentso engagement with newsduring the day includedoverhearing the top o thehour NPR (National Pub-lic Radio) news that wasbroadcast via the radiostation WXPN that playedthroughout the building

where he worked.

Robert28

Events

manager


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24

H annah, a 30-year-oldwoman who still livedat her amilys home, was

studyingor the state

nursing boardexams whileworking ata hospital.

She said sheloved be-

ing a nurse because shedescribed hersel as acompassionate person whocared about people and thestate o the world. I stayup on the news because Iwish I could make more o a di erence. She elt thatsince one person cannot

really make a di erenceglobally, she could helpone patient at a time byin orming those around hero what she learned romthe news. I pay more atten-tion to things that are moresigni cant to me and theworld around me.

Hannah worked at a hos-pital about 15 minutes away

rom her home or threeto our days a week rom 7

a.m. to 7 p.m. Her days o were usually spent study-ing or the board exams,either at home or with a

riend at a co ee shop. Herdaily routine was very di -

erent between when shewas at work and when shewas o .

On her days o , Han-nah liked to start her day

with the news, utilizingboth TV and the Internetuntil she elt up to date.A ter an hour or two, shebegan studying either athome, at a riends houseor at a co ee shop. WhenHannah was studying,she was usually using her

computer by taking testquestions and using onlinestudy resources. When shegot tired she liked to takebreaks and look at the newsa bit. In explaining thishabit, she said, I like tohave my mind concentrateon something else, not justgo dead, because its harderto get my mind going again

i I totally disengage anddaydream or something.

At work, Hannahs newsconsumption was muchmore social, as her col-leagues updated her on thelatest headlines while theydo their rounds. Keeping upon the news at work was avery communal endeavorand an ingrained cultural

habit and even the patientswere involved. At work,

Hannah30

Nursinggraduate

Houston | U.S.

TEXAS

Houston

Austin

Dallas

OKLA.ARK.

0 200 mi

0 200 km

Gulf of Mexico


25/71



25

Hannah depended on oth-ers to update her on thenews. Her access points ornews at work included thenurse sitting at the nurs-ing station with access toInternet and the computerin the break room, whichshe normally used to look

up or browse news a coupleo times during a 12-hourshi t.

Much o Hannahs newsconsumption behavior tookthe orm o a search or an-swers. Not being someonewho automatically acceptedother peoples opinionsor an editorial piece, shetended to investigate the

reasoning, acts and sup-porting evidence behind astory on her own until shewas satis ed with her ownopinion on it.

For instance, a story inthe headlines o the dayduring the study was abouta mother in Ocean City,Maryland, who had le t

our etuses out to die on

her property. Hannah wascurious whether the boy-

riend would be chargedwith committing a crimein addition to the mother.Hannah elt that becausethe two had been together

or so long and had ourother children that theresno way he didnt know shewas pregnant and I think

he should be punishedtoo. She checked everyarticle she could nd aboutthat story but never oundthe answer. She said shewould continue to ollowthis story to see i any newin ormation was released.

B ess, an 18-year-oldwoman, was workingas a receptionist at a hairsalon chain. Her motherwas a hair stylist and Besshad just taken her styling

test. She wasto become astylist at thesame storein just a ew

weeks. Bessworked a -

ternoons into evenings sixdays a week, usually rom 4to 8 p.m. She sat at the ronto the salon behind a coun-ter and computer, greetedand scheduled guests asthey came in a n d tooktheir payments when theyle t. Her other responsi-

bilities included sweeping,cleaning, washing towelsa n d taking inventory.

When she had downtime,or when the door tra c wasslow, she sur ed the Inter-net or news, usually start-ing rom the computershomepage (msn.com) or here-mail homepage (Yahoo).From there, she clicked on

headlines that most inter-ested or intrigued her, orthat had some relevance toher li e or the lives o her

riends and amily. An avidbaseball an, she alwaysclicked on baseball-relatedheadlines.

The owner o her salonhardly ever came in, but

had a Web spyware ap-plication installed on her

Bess18

Recep-tionist


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26

computer so he could watchwhat she was doing on thescreen. I she was is playingsolitaire or looking at thenews, he would look at thecheck-in so tware programto see how many peoplewere being worked on andhow many were queued. I

he thought the salon wastoo busy or her to be d-dling around on the com-puter, he would o ten callher and tell her to get busy.

Bess just graduated romhigh school in May andstill lived at home with hermother and step ather. Her21-year-old boy riend, whoshe had been dating or ve

months at the time o theeld study, recently moved

in as well.They shared her small

childhood bedroom and hadplans to save up enoughmoney to move out, nd aplace o their own and getmarried.

At home, Bess startedwatching the news nightly

with her parents to spendmore time with them. Thenightly news became atime or her to catch upwith them and she saidshe enjoyed it. Bess wouldalso sometimes look some-thing up online rom home,particularly i she got a

piece o a story sometimeduring the day and wascurious about the wholestory. She rarely turned onthe computer at home to

just browse; rather, she wasusually looking up somespeci c story.

Bess was usually engagedwith the news only to theextent o discussing it with

those around her. Rarelydid a news story impact orchange her behavior unlessit was a local story about astorm (need to know aboutthe weather), accident(need to know about tra -

c) or murder/rape (needto know what areas toavoid). Bess was basicallya passive recipient o news

and typically elt no needto take action or be urtherengaged.

C orey, a 24-year-old, wasworking at Best Stor-age, a pri-vately ownedstorage

acility, wherecustomersrent indi-vidual storageunits. Corey

also worke d overnightmost nights at two di erenthal way houses or mental-ly challenged adult men. Inaddition, Corey was study-ing accounting.

In the mornings, whenhe was at one the hal wayhouses, Corey and theguys would sit around thekitchen table and watchthe news on TV ( rst theregular news, but as soonas sports news comes onat 8 a.m. they switch toESPN). A ter the news, heusually would head to Best

Corey

24Aid/

Student


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27

Storage, where he workedve to seven days a week.

When he rst got to work,he caught up on what wasnew (starting with Yahooand moving to CNN.com)or con rmed stories he hadheard on TV that morning,as well as rom the newspa-

per or word o mouth.An important trigger or

knowing the news was a co-worker. Corey talked a lotwith one o his co-workersabout news. As he said,Hal the reason Im sointent on keeping up withsports is so I can argueabout it with her!

Two nights a week, he

had classes and usually wastoo busy or news. How-ever, on the ew nights hewas home, he would o tensit with his wi e, Mel,and watch the news onCBS, ABC or CNN. Theydiscussed what they saw,but Corey tended to avoid

talking politics withMel, since she would getannoyed and bored withpolitical discussions.

Corey did not have Inter-net access at home, so heonly looked online when hewas working at the storage

acility or at school.Corey was engaged with

what he learned rom the

news inso ar as it helpe-dhim eel more con dentand intelligent and allowedhim to orm opinions ordiscussing issues with oth-ers. He elt it was importantto know whats going onaround him and enjoyedtalking with other people,

whether they be colleagues,ellow students, teachers,amily or riends, about

what was going on. Sincehe kept up with the newsso much, he usually oundthat a lot o the in orma-tion was repeated and thathe knew most o what hesaw in headlines already.


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28

S usan, a 25-year-oldwoman, was livingin the suburbs with her

parents, herbrother andhis wi e andtheir 8-year-old son,Frankie. Su-

sans goal wasto be working

as a nurse, or in some typeo eld where she couldhelping others.

Susans direct news con-sumption was very struc-tured and public. WatchingTV news was a daily, amilyevent, particularly in theevening prior to dinner.

Her amily watched the lo-cal news at 5 p.m., then thenational news at 5:30 p.m.,

ollowed by the local newsagain at 6 p.m. The amilydid not subscribe to news-papers.

Susan had a laptop andthe amily had an Inter-net connection. However,Susan described her news

consumption as verytraditional, because it

was based on televisionviewing. Susans activenewsgathering routinewas based mainly on thetimes other people wereconsuming news. In the car,she had the opportunityto listen to the radio, but

or her, the radio is or

music. She did not like tolisten to people talking on

the radio, so she avoidedmost exposure to news.Sometimes, though, shewould listen to drive-timeDJs discuss current eventswhile she was in the car.

Susan might catch theearly news with her atherbe ore she le t the house

at 7:15 a.m., or her job asa nanny. But typically, shedid not get time to hear thenews in the morning be-cause she was busy helpingher nephew get ready orthe day and preparing togo to work. She paid extraattention later in the dayto stories people told romhearing or reading the

news. In this way, Susansaid the news kind o comes to me rom otherpeople who read the news-paper or who watch themorning news.

She was particularly keenon human-interest andlocal stories. Susan believ-eed most news was ar toonegative and she actively

avoided national and inter-national news.

Susan25

Nanny/ Student

Kansas City | U.S.

OKLA. ARK.

MISSOURIKAN.

IOWA100 mi0

Kansas City

Springfield

Jefferson City

100 km0


29/71



29

Sometimes she wouldlook up the in ormationabout breaking news onGoogle Googles a littlebit better to obtain morein ormation. She did notgo rst to news Web sites,which she said could be di -

cult to navigate and there-

ore rustrated her. Mostly,Google and Yahoo weretools that she associatesmore with college course-work and writing papers.

J ack, a 22- year-old man,attended the Universi-ty o Kansasand lived in

Lawrence. Hestarted out atthe Universi-ty o Kansasas a businessmajor and

shi ted to psychology. Heand our raternity broth-ers shared hal o a duplexapartment in a new subdi-vision on the south side o

town.To Jack, news was in-

ormation that was closeto him. Its important toknow whats going on i itll a ect me. The ace o news or Jack was the aceo his social network. He

elt that his riends, par-ents, co-workers and unclewere the constant ace o

news or him. These werethe people who I hear

rom and talk about newsand events. At the sametime, he said that he did notknow a lot o people whowere highly in ormed.

Jack distinguished be-tween breaking news,latest news, top stories,and most popular news

stories. Breaking newswas not the ull story, likea preview, but it is kindo annoying sometimes.I dont like to get bits andpieces o in ormation.Latest news was just a

uller exposition o whatwas previously breakingnews, but he said thattop stories were more

depressing than latest orbreaking news stories.

Given the choice, headded, he would probablygo to most popular storiesbecause the title did notmake him eel quite sodepressed. Jack ollowedsports news and othernews stories di erently. Hereceived RSS eeds on his

Yahoo homepage about hisavorite teams and sports

leagues and ollowed thoseheadlines. He said he would

just glance at other stories.Jack had three variables

that determined whether anews story was high pri-ority or him: location o an event, its severity andhis prior amiliarity with

the context o the story.He acknowledged, though,that his ideas about whatwas news were changingas he matured. In highschool, I couldnt care lessabout the news. In my morein-depth classes, Ive beenlearning the way the worldand the government work.He ound that the scope

o things that a ect himwas widening: Im start-

Jack22

Psychmajor


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30

ing to get out on my ownand there are things I needto know about like SocialSecurity. Jack there oretought that what was news

or him would probablychange over time.

As or his approach tonews, Jack said, I dont

really go hunting or thenews; I just accept it whenit comes. This was clearlynot the case or sportsnews, which he activelysought out on a daily basis,usually sometime a ter hewoke up: I always look upthe sports. Then I mightlook at the weather and

nally the headlines i I

have time. He was particu-larly active in nding newsabout his antasy sportsteams. While he made ahabit o looking up in or-mation on Yahoo Sports, hesaid that i he saw a storyon ESPN rst, he might goto the Internet to ollow upon it.

Jacks main sources were

Yahoo Sports, ESPN andthe Daily Kansan, the Uni-

versity o Kansas newspa-per. He also listened to 101FM and 98.9 FM, especiallyDJ Johnny Dare and to AM810 WHB, a sports talk sta-tion. These tended to be theeasiest sources to access.Yahoo was convenient toaccess because it was his

Internet homepage and theDaily Kansan was avail-able ree on campus whenschool was in session.

Secondary sources orJack included Fox 4 localTV news, CNN, MSNBCand the Lawrence JournalWorld newspaper. Thesesources were outside hisnormal patterns o con-

sumption. However, withcertain riends and co-workers he might use themmore requently.

M ax was working in thesea ood and meat de-partment o a large grocerystore in the ar southern

suburbs. Max was livingwith his parents and sister

in the expanding south sideo Kansas City. The two-story house sa t at the edge

o armland.Max was en-rolled at thelocal commu-nity college.

Max did not

consume thenews much

when he was actually work-ing, but he did when hewas on break. In the breakroom, he looked at TheKansas City Star newspa-per rst the sports, thenthe auto classi eds, thenthe FYI section (a li estylesection) and the headlines.

In the break room he couldlook at the news openly, butthe environment behindthe sea ood counter was notconducive to reading thepaper.

He would sometimesdiscuss the news with co-workers. He ound talkingabout the news with the re-tirees he worked with to be

particularly enlightening.I learn a lot rom them,

Max20

Marketworker


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31

about all kinds o thingsI wouldnt know aboutotherwise. Financial stu ,

or example. These discus-sions were public, becauseit was not a distraction tothe work o servicing asea ood counter.

Outside o work he

consumed the news largelywith riends. This wasparticularly true o sportsnews, which was the sub-

ject o heated discussionbetween his male riendsand himsel . With them, hewatched television, espe-cially ESPN. With his girl-

riend, he was more likelyto watch E! Entertainment

news and admitted thatshe had gotten him inter-ested in celebrity gossip.But most o his news came

rom riends. I get morein ormation rom hearsayor my riends. Theyre likehuman TiVos. Hearingsomething rom one o his

riends would o ten prompthim to pay extra attention

to a story.Because he worked most

o the day, i he watchedthe news on television,it was usually late in themorning or in the eveninga ter work. He also enjoyedand depended on his carand he listened to the radio

when he was driving toand rom work and aroundtown.

Interestingly, Max saidthat news is work; youhave to work to access andunderstand it. The aceso news or him were thesocial satirists and newsentertainment anchors JonStewart and Stephen Col-

bert (cable TV comedians).They embody what Maxcalled anti-negativity.

When Max was online,he used Yahoo most o tento search or in ormation.Another thing I like to hitup is Wikipedia, becauseyou can type in just aboutanything and get the newsyou want. Interestingly, he

did not associate Wikipediawith user-generated con-tent. Instead, he suggestedthat he did not trust user-generated in ormation.People who use blogs areprobably blobs, he re-marked.

Overall, he did not rep-

resent the stereotypical20-something when it cameto computers. The com-puter is a time suck, hecomplained. He only wenton the computer duringhis down time. I I happento be on the computer, itsbecause Im bored. He didnot see himsel as part o the wired generation.

I would like to go onrecord as saying that I moreor less pride mysel on the

act that I dont spend allmy time on the computernot using my mind likepeople who arent out thereexperiencing what there isin the world.


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32

A ndrew, a 20-year-oldman, was nishing hissecond year o college at De

Anza Commu-nity College.A businessmajor, hep l a n n e dt o m o v e

o n t o t h eUniversity o

Cali ornia in Santa Cruz.He went to school ull timeand worke d part time inthe hardware section atSears, a department store.Andrew spent some o histime at home, but most o his time hanging out withhis riends. Andrew lived

with his amily.Andrew was an active

news seeker. During the ob-servation period, Andrewspent about an hour and ahal doing his online classand homework and thentook a break to eat. Dur-ing that time, he turned onESPN and watched sportsnews while glancing at the

sports section o The San

Jose Mercury News. Whenhe returned to his room,he went online to YahooFinance and read an articleabout Netfix and Block-buster stocks. Then he con-tinued with his homework.A while later, he watchedmore sports news on ESPN.

He also caught part o

The Daily Show with JonStewart, among other partso programs, such as theJerry Springer talk showand Family Guy, the ani-mated situation comedy.

Andrew said his normaldaily routine involved read-ing the sports section while

eating break ast and read-ing it again while watchingTV over lunch. He usuallyconsumed sports news butsometimes he read the rontpage o the newspaper. Themain trigger that spurredhim to check the news wasboredom. Whenever he wasbored, he watched TV orlooked online or news.

Staying up to date onthe news was important toAndrew. He said that whenhe went to Israel or twoweeks, he did not have ac-cess to TV or the Internet.He came back completelyunaware o what was goingon and out o the loop.He told the story o a riendwhose parents canceled

their cable TV, leaving her

Silicon Valley | U.S.

Andrew20

Businessmajor

PacificOcean

NEVADA

C A L I F O R N I A

Santa Clara

San Jose

LosAngeles

San Diego

San Francisco

Sacramento

0 200 mi

0 200 km

SilliconValley


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33

unaware o what was goingon in the news.

F rank, a 19-year-old man,was living with hisparents in Santa Clara. Hewas attending his secondyear at a local community

college and was interestedin political science, local

news andanything thatdirectly infu-enced his li e.He d i d notdistinguishbetween thetypes o news

he enjoye d . He repeatedly

said that anything that a -ected his li e in some way

was news.Franks main source o

news came rom the Inter-net. He looked at Digg.comand any sites that werelinked rom Digg. He alsoaccessed news rom GoogleNews, the local televisionstations Web site KTVU.

com, as well as Mercu-ryNews.com. Frank said

that he rst started check-ing the news purely out o boredom, but it had becomea habit. He checked thenews three to our times aday: be ore he le t his housein the a ternoon, be ore heate dinner and be ore hewent to sleep. He had been

doing this or at least a yearand the habit had begun totake on a bit more meaning

or him. As he explained,I read the news when I getbored, but then one o thereasons I read the news isbecause I gain in orma-tion.

Frank shared in orma-tion with his riends via

links he sent them overAIM, a Web messagingservice. He o ten sent them

unny news stories andthey, in turn, would sendhim news links. Whenhe regularly met up with

riends at Starbucks theconversation o ten beganwith Did you hear about?

Fran was proactive in

his news consumption andsearched or online articlesand sites that interestedhim. For Frank, news waseverywhere and he didnot wait or it to come tohim. The ease with whichhe could access the newswas made clear during the

in-depth interview when hestated, Back in the oldendays, people used to pay ornewspapers. Now you can

nd everything or ree.Frank used headlines to

decide whether or not toread articles. For example,on the Digg site, he browsedthe headlines and readthe paragraph-long sum-

maries. He estimated that75 percent o the time hecontinued on with the sto-ries. When he browsed theheadlines, he was looking

or something that caughthis eye, something thatrelated to his li e.

Frank quickly jumpedrom site to site and article

to article while consum-

ing the news. Frank movedon when a story got more

Frank19

Politicsmajor


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34

attention than it deserved.When a story could not goanywhere else, he stoppedpaying attention to it. Inthe case o Paris Hiltongoing to jail (during thetime o the eld study), onepicture o her going to jailtold the whole story. It was

enough.

S ally, a 25-year-oldwoman, was work-ing as an o ce manager/administrative assistant ata start-up health insurancecompany. She le t her house

at 8:30 each morning andhad a 30-minute commutethat she shared with herhusband. They listened tothe local public radio sta-tion that carried NPR orthe duration o their drive.

During the eveningobserved during the study,Sally returned home romwork and immediately

turned on the televisionto the local news. She was

quite engaged with localhappenings, commentingon some stories and main-

tained aninterest inany storiesthat had to dowith her pro-

ession in the

health eld.While watch-

ing the news, Sally checkedher e-mail on the laptop sheand her husband keep nearthe television.

A ter watching the localnews or about 20 minutesshe turned on an Oprah ep-isode that she had taped ontheir TiVo machine. While

watching Oprah, Sally waschecking her e-mail, butstopped to take notes onproducts that Oprah ea-tured on her show. Whenher husband began to usethe laptop, Sally switchedto sur ng the Web on heriPhone. Besides checkingher e-mail, she went toDigg, because she wanted

to get in ormation about apossible vacation she and

her husband may take.Sally paid attention to

headlines in the newspaperand online and used themas a guide to know whicharticles to read. I a head-line resonated with her, i it related in some way toher li e or interests, then

she read the article. Veri y-ing stories was not veryimportant to Sally, as shesaid, I dont con rm thenews I hear unless I wantto know more about some-thing or nd out i it re-ally happened. Theres toomuch news to do that witheverything.

Sally pre erred to get

her news rom the televi-sion, particularly ABC andNBC, because she thoughtthe content was very goodand she enjoyed the mixo local and national newsthat could be gathered ina short time. Sally liked tostay current with the newsbecause it helped her make

judgments and decisions.

For example, during thisstudy Sally was interested

Sally25

O fcemanager


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35

in buying a car and sheound several news reports

on car sa ety to be particu-larly help ul. News storiesthat directly impacted herli e were most newsworthyto Sally.

The news gave Sallysomething to talk about at

work. She stressed that itwas very important to bewell-in ormed so that she

could participate in discus-sions during lunch. She andher colleagues always talk-ed about the news, althoughmost commonly that meantcelebrity gossip. One o hercolleagues who was alwaysup on such news usually be-gan the conversations, and

i it was something Sallydid not know about, shelater looked it up online.

Overall, Sally was abeliever o news. Sallyde ned news as an unbi-ased source o acts romwhich she got most all o her in ormation. She con-sidered news to be honest;something she could useto orm her own opinions.

Newsworthy is somethingthat a ects my li e.


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36

T he ultimate goal rom

ethnographic researchand anthropological analy-sis is to uncover the deeproots o the culture underinvestigation. The DeepStructure helps explain

1) why people do whatthey do and by extension,

2) what products andservices are working or notworking or them.

You might consider thestructure that emerges

rom such an inquiry as anexperience or behavioralmodel.

With an understandingo the cultures roots, itbecomes possible to mapthose roots to peoplesactual and prospectivebehaviors and the products

and services people use or

might use. In this ashion,a behavioral model can pro-vide a company or industry

the news business in thiscase with a ramework orinnovation.

The illustration on page37 was drawn by the Con-text team to capture thenews consumption behav-ior and needs observed

in this study group. Theobservations suggested animbalance in the compo-nents that make up whatmight be called the wholestory behind a particularpiece or body o news. Par-ticipants in the study werereceiving and accessingan imbalance o headlinesand updates in their daily

routines, versus deeper

background, labeled in theillustration as the backstory and uture stories andspin-o s. The study showedpeople spending the major-ity o their time above the

old, to use a print newsexpression, consumingmostly headlines and up-dates. Meanwhile, below-the- old content captured

much less attention.

The old also can be seenas a dividing line betweennews that was consumedmostly passively ( acts andupdates encountered rome-mail, portals or wordo mouth) versus deeperdives that required moreactive consumption, or real

Changing Consumption:Conclusions and Recommendations

Todays Model


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37

work, as the subjectsthemselves described it.

People in the study wereable to articulate the imbal-ance o their news diet as aproblem. They spoke o thedi culty to keep up witha story and mourned theloss o resolution in their

news. In short, the studyillustrated a contemporarynews consumption modelwhere the oundational ele-ments or news and jour-nalism background andnext steps were mostlyout o range. Stories belowthe old seemed in danger

o becoming vestigial newsorgans.

The logical explanationor much o the current

news consumption be-havior is connected to theInternet-driven, 24/7 newsworld. In the study, seem-ingly unlimited access to

news, through unlimitedchannels, created an envi-ronment or excess. Theparticipants in the studywere consuming a steadydiet o bite-size pieces o news in the orm o head-lines, updates and quick

acts.

News consumers dohave a ubiquity o news toselect rom at almost any-time, rom anywhere ona variety o technologiesand plat ormstelevision,Internet, mobile devices,radio and more. How-ever, the reality is that the

abundance o news andubiquity o choice do notnecessarily translate intoa better news environment

or consumers. In act, theconsumers in this studyexhibited news atigue asthey attempted to navigatean in ormation stream that

Todays modelFaster delivery vehiclesand plat orms have cre-ated a news model basedon quick delivery andquick-scan consumption.New generations o newsconsumers seldom digdeeper or below the

old which mayexplain why they crave

more in ormation.

Headlines ,Breaking

Depth,Breadth

Updates Facts

Back storyFuture stories/

Spin-o s

Consumers saythey are inun-

dated with theseaspects

* Larger boxes indicate more available content

while explain-ing they cant fnd

these

aspects o a story.

THE FOLD


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mostly dishes up recycledheadlines and updates. Forexample, Jack rom KansasCity said that news [today]is not the ull story, butmore like a previewitskind o annoying some-times. I dont like to get bitsand pieces o in ormation.

And Riya rom Hyderabadsaid that she loses interesta ter three days i a storyhas become stale or is justrepeating earlier news.

The study clearly showeda contemporary news dietthat was short and gettingshorter on journalistic sub-stance. For instance, whenspeaking about developing

stories, Robert rom Phila-delphia said he does not

want to be ed bits. I wantto know all the details atonce.

But there are signs o hope, too. The subjectstalked about working theirnews as they tried to un-cover the depth o news andthe resolution o stories

they desired. Furthermore,they wanted to work theirnews on their own, puttingtogether their news by pro-ducing it (at least in part)by themselves. Lisa romPhiladelphia was a goodexample. To her, news washere and now. I you wantbackground, its up to you,she said.

That dedication to work-ing the news also produced

a valuable result. Manyo the subjects ound theycould use the news aspower ul social currencyin their interactions withothers. Raj rom Hyderabadand Jill rom Brighton weregood examples o this prom-ising phenomenon. Raj used

a whiteboard to chart hisprospective conversations;Jill kept up on sports to im-press her boss at work.

The most hope ul signthat came through in theseobservations is that news

atigue is not atal. Energyremains or the pursuit o news worth sharing, as the

ollowing key ndings sug-

gest.


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A majority o thesesubjects digested newsalongside their e-mail.The predominant use o Y a h o o , MSN and otherWeb-based e-mail servicespromoted this behavior andlikely ingrained a habit ore-mail/news checking. Iget my news when I checkmy e-mail, was the mosto ten heard response inre erence to when peopleget their news.

On the sur ace, the studysuggested that matchinge-mail with news checkingwas a per ect marriage.Delivering simple head-lines t nicely with e-mailbehavior pushing smallsnippets o in ormationvia quick, hal -sentences.

However, the small doseso news in e-mail ormatsmostly ailed to deliver thedeeper content that mighthave produced a richer andmore rewarding experience

or these participants.Since e-mail is mostly

viewed as an update sys-tem, news producers shouldexplore new ways to moveusers to deeper content

rom those programs.

Field Study FindingsNews Is Connected to E-mail


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A ter e-mail, partici-pants in the study saidthey checked updates andheadlines as a way to passtime and break boredom.This behavior appears tobe related to the e-mailconnection with news aswell as to the ubiquity o news access and choiceavailable online. Overall,participants in the studyconstantly checked ornews and there ore techni-cally consumed news on avery requent basis. How-ever, the news they most

requently accessed largelyconsisted o headlines and

updates. Their behaviorthere ore suggested a alsepositive; that is, the par-ticipants were checkingnews more requently butnot exploring stories in anydepth.

Some participants in thestudy had become aware o

their habit to check newsout o boredom and werechanging their behavior.Frank in the Silicon Val-ley, or instance, activelysearched or online articlesand sites that interestedhim. But Frank nonethe-less made quick jumps

rom site to site and articleto article, suggesting thatnews producers need to ndways to keep people likehim engaged, so that theycan quickly decide whethera news environment merits

urther exploration.

Constant Checking Is Linked to Boredom


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T he contemporarycontext or newsconsumption helps makesense o the seeminglyirrational news-checkingbehavior that was observedin this study. For example,consider the living roomin Marks Brighton apart-ment, eaturing a large fat-screen TV and a Sky Digitalset-top box. A typical scenein the lounge ound Mark,roommates and girl riendsseated in ront o the fat-screen with laptops alsoopened and online.

In order to make sense o the behavior in the room,it is necessary to rst re-de ne the social behavior

represented in such set-tings. That is, does the actthat they are sitting next toeach other and not talkingmean they are anti-social?Not talking does not meanthey are not communicat-ing. What is important tounderstand is how theyare communicating. Inthis case, the riends wereinvolved in a multidimen-sional in or-mation expe-rience. Theywere physi-cally locatedin the livingroom but inreality wereconnected

across time and space tocountless other individuals,groups and in ormation,as well as to each other.Understanding how to de-liver valuable news acrosssuch virtually relativeenvironments like Marksliving room appears keyto making a better connec-tion with this audience.Popular online search and

sharing mecha-nisms are toolsthat could beharnessed toprovide deeperaccess to newscontent and vi-ral distributionopportunities.

Contemporary Li estyles Impact News Consumption


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P articipants in thisstudy did show signs o largely shallow and erraticnews consumption, howev-er the study also suggestedthat people wanted moredepth and were trying to

nd it. Un ortunately, moreo ten than not, people didnot understand that theirattempts to substantiateand validate stories werenot actually getting themanything new. Typically,people in the study were

just checking the same sto-ry through the same source(or news brand) acrossdi erent media. Or theywere checking di erentplat orms but unwittinglyreading content coming

rom the same source, suchas AP .

From a psychologicalpoint o view, one mightinterpret this news con-sumption behavior as aclassic Pavlovian response.In other words, people were

conditioned to respond toheadlines and updates aspresenting whole news sto-ries, when in reality theydo not. We observed con-sumers click and re-clicknews updates and head-lines and continue to do so,seemingly regardless o the outcome. Unknowingly,they o ten clicked througha link or more depth andin reality just got the samecontent rom a di erentnews brand, or on a di -

erent plat orm.I the news industry con-

tinues to support this ha-bitual response, a cycle o above-the- old scanning

or headlines and updateswill likely be perpetuated,limiting demand or andultimately the supply o more in-depth news cov-erage. In business terms,this could result in the losso potential revenue rompremium content delivery,or content that lives below

the old.For the participants in

this study, in-depth search-es or news were limitedmostly to crisis situations.For instance, during the pe-riod when the eld research

was conducted in 2007, amajor bridge collapsed inMinneapolis, Minnesota.Bess, the receptionist atthe hair salon in Houston,clicked on the interactivepieces o the Minneapo-lis bridge story on Yahoo,which digitally recreatedthe all o the bridge andpointed out potential areaso weakness in the bridgesstructure.

The implication or thenews industry is to seecrises as times to educatenews consumers about thetools or digging deeperinto stories with the hopethat they will use thesetools more o ten.

Consumers Want Depth But Arent Getting It


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U nlike past mediamodels, where con-sumers made a scheduleddate with a source o news the morning paperor the evening news, orexample the participantsin this study almost alwaysconsumed news as part o another set o tasks. Multi-tasking kept these subjects

rom giving their ull at-

tention to the news as theywere consuming it. Forexample, Mark in Brightonalmost always consumednews in tandem with someother activity, such as driv-ing or working.

The tendency towardmultitasking the news wasanother key actor contrib-uting to the predominantscanning behavior. Going

or depth necessitated moreattention to the activitythan these subjects tendedto give it. This argues orthe development o moreinteractive news experi-ences, such as the bridgecollapse package that en-ticed Bess to engage moreintently with the content.

P articipants in thisstudy showed signs o news atigue; that is, theyappeared debilitated by in-

ormation overload and un-satis ying news experienc-es. Many consumers in thestudy were so overwhelmedand inundated by news thatthey just did not know whatto do. Participants withnews atigue would try toascertain whole news sto-

ries, but they regularly and

repeatedly were le t unsat-is ed. Ultimately, news a-

tigue brought many o theparticipants to a learnedhelplessness response.The more overwhelmed orunsatis ed they were, theless e ort they were willingto put in.

Adding to news atigueamong these participantswas the widespread belie that all news today is neg-

ative. Over and over again

in the study, the negativityo news tragedy, crisis,

war, terror added to thedesire to tune out.

Ironically, satirical newsshows provided an antidote

or news atigue by creatingan anti-negative. Ameri-can respondents in thestudy noted that the newscomedian Jon Stewartcould take even the mostserious news, spin it and

make it palatable. Robert

News Is Multitasked

Consumers Are Experiencing News Fatigue


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in the United States saidhe liked Howard Stern, acrude radio show that dis-cusses newsworthy itemsas well as entertainment-type news. [Stern] talksabout things in a way I canrelate to. I dont need ananchor to tell me a script. I

get it. For a lot o news itsa case o i we dont laugh,well cry. Id rather trust asatirist than a wax- acedsuit on network news.

The irony in news atigueis that these consumers elt

helpless to change theirnews consumption at atime when they have morecontrol and choice thanever be ore. When the newswore them down, partici-pants in the study showeda tendency to passivelyreceive versus actively seek

news. As one person putit, I dont go hunting ornews, I just accept it whenit comes. Or as anothersaid, News kind o comesto me rom other peoplewho read the paper or

watch the morning news.The implication or the

news industry is not tofood the marketplace withrepetitive content, but tocounter the audiencesanxiety and overload withcompelling content deliv-ered in innovative ways,

whether it be with technol-ogy or tongue in cheek. It isimportant to keep in mindthat learned helplessnessis a chronic condition thatcan be reversed.


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P articipants in the studyconsistently mentionedTV news as an importantelement in their news diet,both as a point o rustra-tion and relie . On the nega-tive side, broadcast televi-sions propensity to teasethe news in promos thatbreak into programmingand throughout newscaststhemselves was a majorcontributor to news atigue

or many o these subjects.Max rom Kansas City, orexample, wanted to catchtop stories but elt televi-sion news usually hidesthem at the bottom o anhour. On the other end o the spectrum, some o theU.S. participants were obvi-ous ans o shows that turnthe news into entertain-ment. Several re erenced ake news, speci callyThe Daily Show (Jon Stew-art) and The Colbert Report

(Stephen Colbert) as newssources. The two areback-to-back news satireshows on cable television.Jack rom Kansas City saidStewart was absolutelythe human ace o news orhim.

The act that people inthe study were growingtired o real news andrelaxing with ake newswould seem to con rmthe conventional wisdomthat young consumersare rejecting traditionalnews ormats. But, in act,these American shows castthemselves in the ormulao old-style broadcast news

journalism with simple setsand an anchor behind thedesk presenting a serieso headlines ollowed bydepth, spin-o s and editori-alizing. The viewer actuallygets a signi cant dose o content along with humor

and entertainment. Byusing the old style newsdelivery ormula, news en-tertainment shows delivera balance o above andbelow the old content,and participants in the

study ate it up. Participantsin Britain mentioned SirTrevor McDonald in a simi-lar vein. Unlike Stewart orColbert, Sir Trevor playslargely a traditional anchorrole, but he ends showswith a satirical spot thatsentertaining.

The takeaway rom thesetelevision trends is thatthis young audience hadlittle patience or ormatsthat promise and dont de-liver. They enthusiasticallyembraced clever presenta-tions that delivered evenmore than they promised,such as the ake news cableshows.

Television Impacts Consumers Expectations


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P articipants in the studyconsistently mentionedthe importance o sportsand entertainment news intheir lives. People enjoyedtheir sports and entertain-ment news regardless o

ormat, and it is worthnoting that sports andentertainment news on TVborrow heavily rom old-school broadcast journal-ism ormulas. Audiences

get a ser

a new model for news - ap, 2008

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