Life in the fast lane

It's funny that for the last several months now, I have blogged about the new media revolution. Heck, sometimes I think I even sounded convincing. But if you were to ask me who my favorite digital journalist is, I would answer with a blank stare.

I'm a student of online journalism, and I understand that I need to open up to those other inputs. But in all actuality, I am still very "old media" minded. I walk outside to my driveway every morning to pickup the Kansas City Star. I listen to NPR on the way to school. I even watch network nightly news and my local news if I'm fortunate enough to be home.

When I do venture to the online realm, it's very habitual:
1. Check all three email accounts.

2. Check class messages/assignments/grades on blackboard.

3. Google whatever strikes my fancy.

4. Find my way back to the MSN homepage and see what stories they think I should read. (Most of the time it's odd news, like "Nude charity calendar ends up costing moms")

Don't get me wrong, I love the benefits of multimedia news. I understand that the online era these days offers a richer experience than ever before. But it seems to me the greatest negative of digging deeper into any issue is time – which is something that I, and many other Americans, don't have much of.

Consider the average time a visitor is on a site, for example. Web analytical tools show a user averages 30 seconds to one minute on a single site. Needless to say is barely enough time to read a paragraph to a story, let alone sift through slideshows, make sense of a graph or pole, or even make it through the bridge of a video.

Americans are succumbing to culture catch-phrases such as: quick and easy, on the go, portable, and high-speed. All have emerged to keep up with our fast-paced lifestyles.

I think it's great technology is reinventing itself to make our digital lives more assessable. But the one thing that worries me is that people aren't using these devices to keep up with breaking news. News is just one more thing people "don't have time for."

The industry needs to find a way to relate to its audience. They need to make people realize news is an important piece of democracy. To me, that would be the most heroic gesture the industry could offer.