I rarely read the New York Times or USA Today, and actually, I would never read them if they weren't free on campus. I read bits and pieces of the Lawrence Journal-World, and I read a lot of the Kansan. Why? Because I'm only interested in news that is local and about people that I either know or am connected to. Not to say I don't think national news affects me. I'm sure to some extent it does. But it doesn't pique my interest the way local and campus news does. I don't think I'm alone, either.
My brother picks up a newspaper and goes straight to the sports page. Some of my friends only want to read the editorials. I tend to pay more attention to stories about things like student housing because I was an RA, or religious stories because I am involved in a Christian organization. Even though different people tend to focus on specific story types in the newspaper or on TV, they at least still see the major headlines about national and international news and at least know a little of what's going on in the rest of the world.
Our own KUJH-TV website allows visitors to pick out different stories and create their own newscast.
The idea of people choosing their own news is not a new one. However, my concern is that people will design their own news websites and not even hear about things that could potentially affect them, just because it doesn't fall into one of their news categories. If the Web only shows people what they ask to see, my brother wouldn't glance over those main headlines on his way to the sports section, and my friends wouldn't breeze through the front page stories before turning to the opinion page. With the Web there's no page turning; only the news you have requested. The question is, are people really getting the news then? I think people are missing out if they only ever see what they want to see. In the future of Web journalism, I hope that the major headlines will never be withheld, even if the reader didn't choose to see them.
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