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Highlights from A New Model for News | Studying the Deep Structure of Young-Adult News Consumption, an ethnography/report by The Associated Press and Context-Based Research Group (PDF of the report):

p. 53: Youngsters’ (18-34) news diet is made up four dishes on 2 sides of the news, eh, dinner table

1. On the “breaking news/headlines/what happened” side of the equation, there are: Facts (basic info) and Updates (more, newer, better, cleaner, fresher info!).
2. On the “depth and breadth” side of the equation, there are: Back Stories (background; what does the story mean? explaining the “why” of stories) and Future Stories (what happens next in a story; resolution to a story).

p. 52: There are far more Facts and Updates than Back Stories and Future Stories, but young media eaters want more, er, BS and FS.

1. Young news consumers feel overwhelmed with the barrage of these snippets of Facts and Updates delivered across a multitude of devices and digital delivery options (e-mail, text message, video clips, IM, RSS and more).
2. They’re having trouble finding deeper, reflective stories that provide the “why” and a resolution to a story.
3. Web users are creating their own BS (p. 38).

p. 52 continued: Uh, oh, somebody used the vegetable metaphor

1. Due to the barrage of info snacks, “…the subjects’ news diets were therefore out of balance. They were eating too many chips and not enough vegetables.”
2. Potato chips threaten society? What is meant by “threaten”? Here’s the passage on p. 52: “The over-consumption of facts and updates…led them (anthropologists) to conclude that informed societies would be threatened - let alone the news business - if this snacking habit were allowed to persist.” Eh…what? And that seemingly patronizing word “allowed” (shortly after “vegetable”!) makes me think of parents scolding their children. So listen, you makers of this cool report, what gives you the right to be talking down — hang on, grabbing a bite to eat…What was I talking about?

p. 56: 2 things, 1 of ‘em a doozy that sounds like what Scott Karp calls link journalism, that news folks can do to produce more value

1. I’m guessing most journalists are doing this all the time: Create more appealing content for entry points into stories (an entry point can be a Fact, Update, Back Story or Future Story).
2. The doozy: “…build the connections that will transport consumers to that content across both media platform and brand.” So different media outlets will work together on each story? Well, the revenue model will have to change radically, first. And then organizing thousands of brains…wait a minute, did the Borg write this report?

More on the Borg:

1. p. 64 “Where online consumers once surfed and bookmarked news sites, users now wonder why a logical trail through the news can’t simply unfold, link by link, across a multitude of sources.”
2. p. 62: “Unless many — indeed, most — news providers adopt a standard set of digital tags, content will not be automatically linkable across both brand and platform.”
3. p. 64: “For its part, AP is offering to apply its metadata tags to the content of its member newspapers in the United States so that related news can be linked across provider.”

p. 58: Are we all going to be wire services?

1. The AP’s 3-stage approach to creating news in this fragmented, always-on news environment: 1-2-3 Filing: 1) Headline; 2) Short, present-tense story with vital details; 3) Story that takes whatever form is most appropriate for audience and platform.
   

p. 65: Sweet! Show me the money!

1. “Still to come are the business models that will drive this news distribution system of entry points and links.”
2. Oh.

Questions:

1. So are people spending so little time on news Web sites because there are too many Facts/Updates and not enough Back Stories/Future Stories, or because people just don’t spend a lot of time on Web sites? What does “time spent” mean anyway?
2. When we are one, gigantic interconnected brain separated from one another only by a Google search or lack of awareness of what we should be searching for to bridge any perceived or non-perceived gap in awareness, will there be less concern about capturing attention and more concern about assisting the efficient application of attention toward completing whatever task our Borg body must undertake in order to survive the material world?