>From Scott J. Anderson's comments, posted at 20:25 on  9 Sep 95:

> Thus, instead of thinking like publishers and producers with mass
> audiences, news organizations should try to tailor their services so
> that every person who uses their services will find what they're
> looking for. 

There's a pretty good theoretical justification that people turn to 
mass market publications *NOT* to find out things they want to know 
about but rather to find out what it is that others in society are 
learning and thinking about.

Interestingly, this idea is supported by preliminary results of 
NewsLink's on-line survey of content preferences. I was quite amazed 
myself when I began studying the data to write one of the content 
chapters in our "Tomorrow's News Today" report. But the more I 
examined the data the more clear the picture became. News appears to 
be something we consume mostly so we can "fit in" with the rest of 
society. Though I usually dislike uses & grats research, which is 
what this is, I'm hoping to design a study to look at this in greater 
detail.
______________________________________________________________________
Eric K. Meyer            N e w s L i n k             1,803 media links
meyer@newslink.org    Research & Consulting    http://www.newslink.org

              Now available from NewsLink Research:
  "Tomorrow's News Today: A strategic guide to on-line publishing"
         For a free preview, write to report@newslink.org

------------------------------

End of online-news-digest V1 #353
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