As we count the days until the iPad arrives, many of us have been thinking about how it will fit in with daily life, and in particular, how it might change the way we get my news fix each day.Over night, if I can't quite sleep, I have an earphone plugged in to ABC News Radio which broadcasts BBC and other news services. So often, I've heard a news story develop through the night that it's shocking to see the newspaper arrive declaring some out of date story as the biggest thing on this morning.
Breakfast is consumed in front of a computer monitor, which isn't totally satisfying but it gives me an efficient rundown of all the news that matters to me compliments of Google Reader and Google News. Recently I've been using Google Chrome as my default browser and that now has extensions including Feedly which makes a nice looking "newspaper" out of my subscriptions.
I can easily imagine reading the news on a tablet in this form.
If there is a big story that happened sufficiently long ago that TV might have video, I'll watch the evening news to see it for myself. TV news is a slave to video content, for good reason, but as a balanced run down of current news it's with newspapers as "aged news" (is that an oxymoron?).
The other side of breaking news is analysis and for that you can't go past the ABC news and current affairs radio and TV. You probably know by now that I'm a devoted addict of all things Radio National but podcasts now illuminate any commuting time. Recently I've been listening to WNYC's Radio Lab which has some great content.
It's going to be a big year for news consumption. The challenge is not getting news, it's sorting and filtering it. As you see at the top, Google reader can sort your news by magic.
Good update. One thing to contemplate is how important is news. You clearly are a news-junkie (each to their own). I try to operate on a news diet and often consider the value of particular media and what I'd really miss if I didn't catch the news for a bit. In many ways news is entertainment for intellectuals. It is good to stay current and be across what's happening in the world at large but times have changed. Google et al give us information on demand. Whereas in the past you had to actively follow the news to have a current grasp on matters.
ReplyDeleteOh and when you are overdone with the news I highly recommend visiting NPR's All Songs Considered podcast - an excellent expose to new music across all genres.
Thanks Tony,
ReplyDeleteI think it was you that referred me to WNYC's Radio Lab. I like it but sometimes feel the production is a little "over done", in particular the way they interview people and when they answer they fade them down and tell you what they said in voice over!
Good original topics though.
Peter