Technology and it's Affect on How We Receive News

Technological advancements throughout the past 25 years have transcended the way news is gathered, discussed, shown, and saved. I mean, no longer do you have to save a newspaper article if you want to read it later. Now you can bookmark it, or save it on your iPhone. No longer do you need to leave the living room or even get up to turn on the radio in order to get the latest news. Now you just have to click on your homepage to get the biggest news stories of the morning. The way information is received has affected the perception of authority and reliability.

Google, everyone uses it, and if you say that you don’t then you probably aren’t aware of it. Google has controlled the way hundreds of millions of people find out things. Google, which owns YouTube, is a news source. It’s not perceived that way but it is. As a result, reliability is a big factor. Causal users often take what they see in a headline as fact so they are vulnerable to popular news sources online. This gives large news sources a lot of power politically, but it makes them accountable for the information that they provide. Are these changes due entirely to new technology?

I don’t believe that the greatness of technology is the sole reason for this movement. A large reason is because of McDonaldization. The process of McDonaldization takes tasks and breaks them down into smaller tasks over and over again until all tasks have been broken down to the smallest possible level. This process is how I understand culture to be. Examples of McDonaldization include emailing family members through a computer instead of writing a letter or paying someone a visit by foot. Often I would find myself going to my local library to find a book and it would either be sold out or not available. It’s easier now to search for it on Amazon or eBay where that particular book is more likely to be found. Often I would get the newspaper before school to get the results of a sports game. Instead of having to purchase a $0.50 newspaper I can find out the results, see the highlights, and get fan comments through ESPN, Facebook, and Twitter in a matter of seconds.

How will the internet continue to affect mass communications in the coming 5-10 years? What capabilities will the internet likely have? I don’t see YouTube going anywhere. I foresee YouTube using what Netflix has used to become popular. It wasn’t one of the top 3 features that made this company what it is today, but I see Netflix being ahead of the curve on surveys and taste preference questions. Netflix is very thorough when trying to figure out what the user likes, which then makes it easier for them to choose movies and shows that fit the users’ interests. I see YouTube doing this. I see them adding this as a feature when someone is signing up. “What type of movies did you like growing up? What would you rate your interest in love songs? Do you watch CNN, how often? Very often, not at all, or religiously? How interesting are you into Video bloggers?” Asking these along with taking into account the users’ age is a perfect way to recommend YouTube users without going through the hassle of searching. This wouldn’t be limited to only YouTube or dating sites, but to news websites as well. It would be a way to make users feel more of an attachment and loyalty to that particular site because the website knows them so well.

Written by Jason Jeremiah