I read a lot of news websites, i take mental breaks to skim through recent news updates from CNN, MSNBC, Drudge Report, Google & Live.com news feeds. I see an article that may peak my interest by both the title and the caption of the event or news source next to the abstract or link. I then want to check out the actual article to see more pictures of the events because that is what initially drew me to the story.
However, I'll venture to say in 90% of those cases when i actually visit the news story page where the actual content describing the event is detailed i find absolutely no images relating to the actual event that took place. I go to read an article that pictures Israeli soldiers entering/occupying a town in Gaza displayed in my feed, i visit the actual page, and i find there are no images present on the entire page related to the actual story. Sure the journalist does their best to describe the scene but people want images with as much interaction as possible. Flat text is dead to the mostly illiterate masses who have grown up with color television, and have greatly accustomed to interactive websites.
I would venture to say the only consistent news site that actually has at least one image relating to the actual article would be from ‘The Sun’ and possibly ‘Times,’ but i don’t read the Times anymore because it’s neither relevant nor intriguing. I really wish that in a time when newspapers are hurting so badly for business they’d stop trying to lure me to their articles with photos of the events only to bombard me with a text-only page. I appreciate text, but pictures speak a thousand words that the journalistic witty rhetoric to past/current events never will. I want to see what the event is in pictures so i don’t waste my time reading more about something i may or may not be actually interested in.
Anymore all one sees on news sites is how dire the outlook of the newspaper business/economy has become, and yet these same news outlets are the single point of authority of news for many non-internet enabled aficionados. I wonder just how biased these same news outlets are to stirring fear of the recession to garner enough support for a stimulus to keep their insufficient outdated businesses afloat. Just a side note for CNN. When you put a poll on your website, and then write an article describing the polled event citing the ‘majority of people believe' this that or the other it’s not news. It’s a convenience statistic done in such a way that only the biased base market of those who visit your website believe, and not an actual news worthy piece worth reporting. I could put a poll on my blog about whether people think the News business is dead, and I'm sure i could write a blog post saying that most people believe news papers are dead or dying. Wait, i guess that’s old news.
Offbeat