Tablet computers[/caption]Carol Forsloff - More and more people are reading the news, as technology expands Internet reach and reader options throughout the world; but social media is not the top source for news as thought.
The Pew Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism surveys the state of the journalism world, taking a look at what drives traffic and what readers want.
What Pew researchers have found is that sources like Facebook and Twitter may add to traffic, but only nine percent of users get their news recommendations from these social media sites. Facebook leads Twitter as a source for finding news material.
As devices for reading news material expand, readers continue to turn to traditional news sources for their reading about contemporary events. This does not mean they do not read just the mainstream press, the big boys like the New York Times. But the reader is more apt to do a search for material or find those outlets that present news material in which they are most interested. Traditional media continues to appeal to most news readers.
So what’s the best method of securing website traffic? Unique, well-written material remains high on the list of SEO experts and others examining the issue of Internet growth and user behavior as the best method of increasing readership. A forum post summarizes what many technical support staff and website experts tell us: “Write quality, original content. Ensure that Google can see it and make sense of it. Update regularly.”
Readership is up, across many venues, because of technology. And despite the concerns that the reading public simply wants the hit-and-miss sensational material, a good many are looking for substantial material that appeals to their interests and that they find unique.
While news organizations worry about losing readership, the problem is less the competition with social media than the actual number of sites that offer news. Still reading as fundamental is being presented across the platforms of technology, a way to provide more and more people with opportunities to learn.
