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Net surfers use Web to bypass media

1-in-4 go online to find news traditional media skips

By Jonathan Dube

In the strongest evidence to date that Americans are routinely using the Internet to bypass traditional media, a new report finds that about one quarter of Net users say they go online to find news coverage and images they can't get from the mainstream media.

Net users say they have sought out graphic Iraq war images in particular. And while they say they're glad they did, they also disapprove of the most graphic images being available online on any sites, according to the report from the Pew Internet & American Life project.

Twenty-four percent of Net users say they have searched on the Internet at some point for news stories, photographs or videos that other media outlets have decided not to publish.

When it comes to the war in Iraq, 24% of Internet users have seen war images online that were deemed too graphic or distrurbing to be shown on television or newspapers -- that's more than 30 million people. Of those who have seen the images, 28% said they actively sought out the images. The rest say they happened upon the images while doing something else online.

Everyone knows people have been searching the Internet for graphic news images the mainstream media doesn't run — such as the beheading of hostage Nicholas Berg, which was the top request on most search engines the week it happened. But until now, the extent to which people bypass the mainstream media to find these images hasn't been known.

This doesn't necessarily mean mainstream media should publish these graphic images.

The report found that 49% of Americans disapproved of the images being available online on any sites, compared with 40% who approved.

At the same time, though, 51% of the 30 million who saw the images said they felt they had made a good decision, while only 33% said they wish they hadn't seen them.

The survey did not ask whether people felt the mainstream media should publish the images. But judging by the large number of people who objected to them being available online at all — and the large number who were able to find the images anyway — there doesn't appear to be a strong reason, based on the survey, for the mainstream media to publish more than it has.

News sites would be smart to use their judgment to select the photos that best tell the story and convey information to the readers -- and to force the reader to actively decide to view them by making them click through a clear disclaimer. When it comes to images from Iraq, most sites did this very well.

Discussion

3 comments about 'Net surfers use Web to bypass media'

This was inevitable. the internet combines the virtues of the print - the archival value - and the instantaneousness and the updatedness of the television. the tendency to bypass the traditional media for news will grow with time and it is no point regretting it. in fact it should be encouraged by greater efficiency in catering news from a wider field of areas of interest.the blogs will soon make local news made available worldwide - much faster than the reporters of traditional media can reach the place of occurance. print couldnt chase the television with spot news; and it is futile too. now both print and television will have to give up chasing the internet. they must find other ways of attracting the reader/audience. meanwhile kudos for the online media.only thing - it must ensure its credibility.

Posted by buroshiva dasgupta at July 9, 2004 11:25 PM

TV and printed news, news in any delivered form, NEVER provides the limitless details that an individual can obtain by researching on their own.

The fact that the internet is now available to a very large audience only proliferates this human condition to where media agencies cannot compete or prevent.

They just have to convince everyone that their news just happens to be more important than other news....

Posted by cel at July 14, 2004 8:37 PM

looking

Posted by kmarahim at February 13, 2009 4:55 PM

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