Broadcast vs. Print

In my home I am a little ashamed to say we do not receive the daily or even Sunday newspaper, however, we do pay over a hundred dollars for our cable. Which raises the question, how much do people rely on the printed news versus broadcast news?

We started learning about writing for broadcast in class next week and so I paid a little more attention to the news. I was surprised how much the station I was watching incorporated online polls in their broadcast stories. They would discuss a story followed by what the audiences opinion was through the online poll.

I have to admit I do not read the paper on a regular basis. I know this is a bad thing considering I am a communications major but I just can't find time to flip through the paper that my son likes to tear apart. However, when I do read the paper it is usually the feel good section or special topics section.

I don't use the paper to get my hard news. I usually click on the yahoo story board to get information or go to the online article the ladies are discussing at work. I think a large majority of people are getting their hard news stories through mainly through internet but through broadcast as well.

The owners of the company I currently work for have televisions in their office, with CNN running on different days. They get the latest updates on whatever is going on in our world today. Today at lunch the restaurant had CNN and FOX News on covering President Obama's speech about energy sources.

The vast majority of our society has a right-now attitude approach to news. They want to know what is happening in a quick, concise manner. There are probably a very long list of reasons why, maybe the unrest in our world today has also created this feeling of urgency to know what is going on. Maybe this is a good thing maybe its not.

Learning about writing in the different types of media is interesting. Like I said before, I like sparkle and fluffy, so I am not really sure where I fit into this world of media writing. It sounds pretty naive but I just want to plan special events! I know life is more complicated than that so for now I will hope one day I will completely understand how to properly use a comma and when to use a hyphen.