"Dude! Come here. You have to see this You Tube video!"
"Is it Lindsay Lohan?"
"No."
"Is it the latest hit by Soulja Boy?"
"No. It's news from Bangladesh!"
Yeah. Right.
Out of all the videos my friends deemed I "had to see", the news*
never seemed to be one of the topics of interest. Of course, my friends are guys that are 21 going on 12, but not even if they were a more mature and worldly audience would they get their news from You Tube (unless they lived in Venezuela.)
If you live here, you might get your news from You Tube.
Photo courtesy of One Off Man Mental.
Granted, more and more viewers are turning off televisions and turning on their computers, but does this mean that they are using You Tube to get their news?
That's like saying the kids are going to the candy store to get their daily supply of nutrients. It's just not true.
If cable television beats out network TV by one thousand, then the internet beats out cable by one billion. With movies and entire seasons of shows available for download, with the news networks racing to amp up their websites and, of course, with You Tube filling our constant craving for "reality TV", it's true that television might soon go the way of the news reel and the silent film.
The internet will absorb everything that is available on television and amplify it.
Journalistic types will bite their nails and wonder where it's all going.
But my friends on You Tube will still be more fascinated with Lindsay showing her "Britney" than with the presidential race. And when they come to me demanding to know where this lady president came from, I will direct them to the world of "inter"network news.
*"News" is used to mean things that you might read in the New York Times or see on CNN, not things you might read in US magazine or see on E!.
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