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On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Michael G. Garber wrote:

> -----------> This message was posted to the ONLINE-NEWS list. <-----------

> meyer@newslink.org wrote:
> 
> > -----------> This message was posted to the ONLINE-NEWS list. <-----------
> >
> > At 17:34 on 10 Jun 98, Suzanne Lainson  wrote in part:
> >
> > > Some observers felt that people were getting too much information of
> > > relatively little consequence.
> >
> > The Pew Center study found that readers of online news profess to
> > being LESS overwhelmed by information than do non-readers of online
> > news.

Part of this "two view" perspective is that more experienced users
have learned to filter their information much more efficiently.  Savvy
users are using search engines, mail filters, focused news groups,
and previews of the header lines.

The "overwhelmed" users are the ones who turn on the channels, get
themselves on "spam lists", enable ICQ for every tom dick and mary that
might want to chat with them, and then try to run the entire mess on
a 800x600 screen while trying to use a word processor, spreadsheet,
and powerpoint, all nearly entirely overwhelmed.  Then, they have
Lotus Notes or Exchange demanding that you immediately acknowledge
the reciept of another piece of "junk mail".

Publishers generally take the attitude that their job is to get
their advetiser's copy into as many seats as possible, regardless
of whether the consumer has any level of interest.  They proudly
declare that they have 1 million "impressions" per month.

The problem is that those impressions are often not the impressions
you want to make.  The last thing your advertizer's want is to
have themselves linked with "stealth mail" such as that used by
Ponzi Schemes, Porno Boards, and invitations to "Make Money"
(we'll tell you how if you send us $25).

Publishers try everything they can to get the user to check out the
latest updates to their sights, even if all they have done is changed
the time on the masthead.

To the user, especially a manager or executive who is holding a meeting
in his office, or is trying to show a presentation, the last thing he
needs is a beeping flashing flaming control blasting out of his web
browser.

> > This is an interesting statistic. On the surface it seems to
> > belie the idea of an information explosion. There could be all sorts
> > of claims that online is more selective and therefore copes better
> > with an information explosion. Or there could be a different
> > causality: More sophisticated news consumers, who are more likely to
> > use online, may feel less overwhelmed than less sophisticated news
> > consumers.

Mainly people just need to learn to manage their information flow, and
publishers need to be responsible for what they consider immediate.  One
of the most annoying things is to have some ActiveX control trying to
feed real-time animations while you are dealing with an overloaded
network.  My favorite is the "Bell Atlantic ISDN" add that tries to
tell you how much better you pages would load if you had ISDN.  The
only problem is that you are on a DS/3 circuit and you can see that
one of the reasons the network is so slow is because 4,000 workstations
in your building are running this cute little animation (on a background
screen).



> > This, if true, is perhaps the worst of the spins, for it could mean,
> > as Suzanne's comment suggests, that there is an increasing disconnect
> > between what we cover and what is of significance to most of the
> > audience.
> >
> > The less personally relevant an issue is to a reader, the more
> > likely that reader is to be swayed by slogans, images and other
> > non-systematic thought processes. The press' inability to focus on
> > issues of perceived personal impact may, in fact, be at the root of
> > the increasing frequency of dogmatic, knee-jerk reactions and
> > sloganeering that so many people have noted in society.
> 
> One feature of on-line news that relates directly to usage stats is the
> dynamic nature of the beast. Personal relevance can be amplified by the stats
> that are being generated. If a story is generating a meager amount of hits it
> should die automatically and those generating a large amount of hits stays put
> and encourages follow up until the stats taper off. This should be controled
> by programs linked to dynamic data bases. Ads can be automatically applied to
> those stories based on the amount of hits generated and the theme of the
> story. For example maybe there is an ad client who has a small budget for
> on-line promotion of their website. If the business is vitamins they could ask
> that their banner be applied to health related stories and the on-line news
> service could price the banner based on level of hits. Their banner could be
> applied at the cheapest level being when the story is under a set amount of
> views. I believe Nando Times uses some of this on their site.
> 
> 
> >
> >
> > Covering the horse race rather than the issues of a campaign,
> > particularly if the issues have perceived personal impact, may lead
> > to a campaign in which slogans rather than issues are most important,
> > for example.
> >
> >               ERIC K. MEYER - meyer@newslink.org
> > -----------------------------------------------------------------
> >            managing partner - NewsLink Associates
> >            online publisher - AJR NewsLink
> >     asst prof of journalism - University of Illinois
> > visiting research scientist - Natl Center for Supercomputing Aps
> >
> > - "Tomorrow's News Today" critically acclaimed guide to strategic
> >    planning for online publishing (mailto:report@newslink.org)
> > - "Designing Infographics" (http://www.newslink.org/book.html)
> > -  http://www.newslink.org, web's top media resource: 8,000
> >    links, more newspapers, hundreds of journalism jobs
> >
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> 
> 
> --
> Michael S. Garber * click below for business card * Mexico Communicates
>           -> http://www.tou.com/host/mgarber/buscard.html <-
> 
> 
> 
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> 

	Rex Ballard
	http://www.access.digex.net/~rballard
	this correspondence is personal opinion
	and does not necessarily reflect any corporate view.
	copyright 1998  - Rex Ballard



From rballard@access4.digex.net Wed Mar 11 00:04:11 1998
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