revisiting the Role of Technology
Many newspapers have also been revising content in order to target a more specific—and generally younger—audience. The prevalent assumption has been that the general population wants their news delivered in bite sized packages and given the larger lack of editorial resources, the Associated Press, Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal have all explicitly told their reporters to write shorter stories within the past year and a half.
“We were told to make stories shorter [and] pay attention to what is hot on social media,” Bowles said. “We were writing about Justin Bieber in a way we never were before. We were covering things that only kids cared about and that was now driving news.”
News organizations have repeatedly dictated that the future of journalism is bleak. They attribute this to the continual dumbing down stories in order to interest a population with an ever-shrinking attention span. But in reality, the demand for in depth reporting remains the same. The only change is that innovation is the key for newspapers to remain relevant in today’s technologically savvy world. Though different audiences may have different preferences, the demand for in depth reporting remains the same.
“People are also reading longer stories particularly with the development of the tablet. While there is a lot [of content] in mobile and social that is short there is also a place there for longer kinds of news reporting. Whether it is read on the tablet [or through] a link they share in social media, that kind of news can exist and have an audience as well,” Mitchell said.