A three percent solution

Now that newspapers have driven themselves into a frenzy over how the heck they're going to get on-line and make a profit, MIT Research Affiliate Shawn O'Donnell tells us that in fact, only two to three percent of the time current web users -- experienced or novice -- spend on the Web is spent looking at news.

Why? It seems that newspapers in their traditional black-and-white-crinkly-ink-on-your-fingers-tree-sucking format just has too great a comfort factor for them to be willing to make the switch. And since we seem so damned intent on being information companies instead of newspapers (yeah, I know, the railroads ...) we've gotta find a way to get them to switch (yeah, I know, if we don't, someone else will. Yawn.)

So, howz about we just toss out all those cliched old journalism practices like balance and fairness, and give the reader what they want -- a little bias knob -- a.k.a. News PRISM -- so they can create their own news.

If you like Limbaugh, just turn the knob, and the story transmogrifies into something that will persuade you that his account is what the world looks like. Likewise, we feminists can tune in our own version of the story, and the gonzo types of the world can get a Hunter S. Thompson-like take. Dude. Why did we ever bother?

So, anyway, research at MIT shows that there is some possibility of fragmenting the public with this kind of news delivery, and that readers would at least like some kind of brand identification so they at least know whether their news is leaning so far over it's about to tumble to the ground.

A production of The Cole Group, Copyright (c) 1997, All Rights Reserved.

Last updated: 30 June 1997.

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