Jun 15 2007
New rituals for new media - pt.1
NPPA’s Multimedia Immersion program wrapped up earlier this month with a panel discussion. One of the panelists was Andrew deVigal, multimedia editor for the New York Times:
“Success is not going to be measured by the number of hits or by the number of Web pages served. It’s going to be determined by the amount of time a reader spends on the Web page, and that’s where video and multimedia increases the opportunities.” In theory, readers will spend more time on Web pages featuring photojournalism in multimedia presentations than they would on “flat” HTML pages that use still images interspersed with text stories. “Having a reader spend more time on a page gives the publisher more time to present more advertising.”
deVigal’s argument seems to ignore the fact that we compete for readers/viewers time. The more of that time we want the more compelling the content has to be. Dressing up a minute of information inside a 5 minute package might work on network news but it is not going to work on the net.
The consumption of old media - reading newspapers, watching nightly news - is essentially a ritualized activity. Most of the core audience is there whatever the content. A half-hour news show isn’t cut to 10 minutes on a slow news day.
The consumption of new media - or at least new media news - is a rationalized activity. Few people devote a portion (say 30 minutes) of their day to an online news site. The headline’s in the BBC’s RSS feed can remain unchanged for 2 or 3 days at a time. Each story has to fight for eyeballs on its own merits.
To take advantage of the deVigal’s suggestions we would first need to create rituals around presentation/consumption of online news. This is not going to be simple. The rituals of reading newspapers and watching nightly news are based on the myth of the 24 hour news cycle. Every day produces 30 minutes/pages of news.
The 24 hour news cycle is a completely artificial construct conjured by newspapers and co-opted by nightly news shows. It is being destroyed by the web. And with it go the rituals of news consumption that allow a newspaper to spin a page of news into a 30 page newspaper.
hat tip: Chuck Fadely’s NewspaperVideo newsgroup
[BONUS LINK] Steve Boriss:
“And speaking of habits, is it possible this is what it now all comes down to? The habits of an aging readership that is more comfortable holding paper in its hands?… the habit of advertisers to maximize profits”.
But as Max Weber lamented 100 years ago ritual and rationalization both create habits but they are very different beasts. And the path between them is one way.
Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan once said, “people don’t actually read newspapers—they get into them every morning like a hot bath.” The same cannot be said of news online, where habits like clicking, searching, and scanning more closely resemble jumping in and out of a cold shower. The newspaper ritual has been disrupted.