AS THE WORLD CHANGES

Two pieces of information that show how the world of media consumption is changing.

One: The Christian Science Monitor reports that internet users are now spending more of their time online reading content than they are with email or search engines.

Last month, people spent 40.2 percent of their time online viewing content..., more time than they spent on communication (39.8 percent), commerce (15.8 percent), or search (4.3 percent), according to an Internet Activity Index released Thursday. It was the second straight month that the index had shown content as the highest-rated activity.

A year earlier the same survey showed a dramatically different picture: E-mail and other communication occupied 45.2 percent of people's online time with content at just 35.3 percent, commerce at 16.5, and search at 3.0.

One of the things that means, according to the article, is:

The Internet attracts people looking for content because they can "find information in real time rather than waiting for a newspaper to come out or the evening news," [Michelle] Manafy says, "a sort of at-your-leisure, on-your-own-time" way to find information.

Two: In Europe, the internet has surpassed newspapers and magazines when it comes to the amount of time people spend with media. According to DMEurope.com:

There has been a rise in the amount of time people spend online, with the internet now accounting for 20 per cent of Europeans' media consumption, according to research commissioned by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA).

The study places the internet above both magazines (eight per cent) and newspapers (11 per cent) in terms of media consumption, and not far behind radio (30 per cent). TV continues to represent the largest share of people's media time at 33 per cent but over a third (35 per cent) of those online watch less TV as a result of using the internet.

Stats like these suggest that the times aren't achangin': they already have.

SOURCE: I Want Media.
10:43:12 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

YE OLDE REGULATORS

Todd Maffin at I Love Radio wants to know what the CRTC has against the little guy.

How come the CRTC denies countless applications for low-power community radio stations (how will a measly 10-watt transmitter harm anything?!), but when somebody wants to set up a transmitter in North Vancouver to pump out "information on tourist attractions and ... shopping, entertainment, accommodation and restaurants" the CRTC rubber-stamps it.

Good question. Governing institutions (both here in Canada and in the U.S.) are well behind the technology curve: they're still making rules based on an old understanding of how the world works, an understanding that ignores the way technology has exploded and is blowing up traditional media.
10:23:10 PM  LINK TO THIS POST  

EGGHEAD GOOGLE

Google Scholar searches:

...specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.

Just what you need when an essay deadline is staring you down. Or, as optimuscrime.org says, "like Google, just nerdier."
8:33:53 PM  LINK TO THIS POST