How news and information are accessed through digital channels?

Being able to be connected to everything you’re interested in, anytime you want has definitely changed the way we consume media and information. Because we’re not bound to wait for the morning paper or the hourly news update from TV, but have the option to access information anytime that suits us, has resulted in new ways of accessing information.

Apps, Search, RSS readers, social media, news aggregator sites and of course traditional news sites, all provide us with different ways to access and consume information. Let’s go over the four main ways.

1. Going directly to the news site of my choice

This is the classical model of consuming news and the philosophy behind any newspaper. I choose the media site I trust, click my way to the front page and study the content the editors have chosen for me.

This model depends on my trust in the brand and old media habits. But it also limits how many sources I can follow. In the past you had no choice. You subscribed to one or two newspapers and watched a couple of television channels. Editors may be dreaming that I am happy only with their site for all my needs, but it just isn’t so.

2. Aggregation of news from many sources

The web has given us practically unlimited number of choices. But there is no way I can visit every site I might be interested in every day. So I use aggregation sites, which automatically pick up news from numerous different sources, either selected by me or by the aggregator.

Aggregation offers users the choice to follow many more news sources than before, scanning through their headlines and quickly deciding whether they want to go to the actual source. This is a major benefit if you are following news from a particular niche. Yet the amount of stories quickly becomes too much. The biggest challenge is what to do with the stories you did not have the time to scan through.

3. Search

Search has become so convenient and normal these days that we don’t even think about it as “search”. Search is very good when you look for specific information – but does not work as well when you just want to follow the latest news. There are some great opportunities with tailored search alerts, for instance if you are following the news about one particular company.

4. Peer-edited news stream

Social communities like Twitter and Facebook as well as bookmark sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious let users recommend news content to their peers. Instead of depending on the sources of the news, the users leave their trust with who is recommending the content. Basically this means that your peers take the role as editors.

Personally I have found myself increasingly depended on the people I follow on Twitter and Facebook. I have chosen these people either because I know them or because they have a professional position, which is interesting to me. These people provide an increasing number of the news stories I have the time to consume during the day, especially in the niche areas of my interest.

And guess what? They are so much quicker than the professional journalists! Breaking stories happens so much faster in Facebook and Twitter because the distribution is crowdsourced to the users and because people spend most of their time using them anyway. It only makes sense that they should be the main medium of accessing and consuming information in the upcoming years.