Radio, Online

The general sentiment at this conference is that young people are no longer reading newspapers and listening to the radio.  They are glued to their computers, getting their news from who knows where- blogs, podcasts, YouTube among them.

The question is; how do you share your journalistic wares in this new medium?

“We can’t just say, ‘isn’t it terrible they’re not reading newspapers?’” declared Alfred Hermida this morning.  “We have to find ways to reach them”

“We’re experimenting,” said Vicky Valentine from NPR, “Everyone is still trying to figure out the web, and what really works.” She presented one of their experiments, an interactive site focusing on language.

The site used video and audio clips to explain different experiments on aspects of language.  One of the criticisms of this site, said Valentine, was that not all of the people who were interviewed for the site had video clips to share. 

Another interactive site that Valentine presented focused on the impact of the war in Iraq. 

One of the questions Valentine raised was how long the online clips should be.  How long are people’s attention spans when they’re online?  Is 2 minutes too much, too little?

You tell me, she says, showing us another interactive site, this one a slide show with audio about child brides in Ethiopia.  This one is great, she says, partly because it was so cheap to produce. Yet the vivid pictures accompanying the radio story add a whole new perspective to the story.