Back in December, I had the chance to help the local university screen applicants for a leadership scholarship.
Along with half a dozen other grown ups, it was my job to ask questions of these high school seniors and then make judgments about their responses.
It was fascinating.
The questions and answers were all over the map, but one question I found myself asking consistently was:
Where do you get your information?
I was curious to see – in today’s world of Twitter, The Facebook, blogging, texting and WUPHF – to what extent the younger set relies on mobile stuff for its information.
The surprising thing was that most of the kids said that they read the local paper or watched the evening news. Only a few mentioned mobile as their primary information source.
My conclusion was that one of the following must be true:
- They were lying
- They were telling me what they thought I wanted to hear
- They were honest, and news consumption among that age group may be very low
- They were honest, and news orgs have a long way to go in reaching kids under 18
Since then, I’ve been really curious about where other people get their information. I’ve asked a few of my clients and a few other people I know. I figure if I know how you inform yourself and how you reach conclusions, the better positioned I’ll be to help you.
I’ve also been thinking about how I get my information. It kinda goes in layers, like this:
- Twitter, on my phone: this is generally the first place I hear about news-y things
- Google Reader, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance and Wall Street Journal, on desktop computer – I would love to have put something more sophisticated than Yahoo! as news sources, but I’m just keeping it real
- Today Show, on the TV – I catch about 20 minutes of this while I’m getting ready for work
- Local newspaper, paper copy – I scan the local paper a few days per week
That’s how it works for me.
How about you? Where do you get your information?
mike or m’dad. twitter. cnn.com (after i see something on twitter). i used to read the christian science monitor somewhat regularly after a polisci professor made us do it every day before class.
them kids was lyin.
Thanks for chiming in, Erin. Good point about Mike and your dad. A lot of what we hear is from other people and then we may follow up on it later on our own. Yeah, I discovered the CSM in college too and was surprised to find it was a high quality newspaper. I thought all the articles were written by L. Ron Hubbard…I was confused.
Pingback: Friday Linking for Thinking | My Best Investments
Me too on Yahoo News. That’s most likely my initial “Aha” on a story, then I follow up.
Tampa Bay Times (f/k/a St Pete Times). Yes, I still read the actual newspaper, but also look at the online version.
Today show – been watching for most of my life.
Local evening TV news — usually mostly for the weather.
The Daily Show – seriously!
Lawyer gossip.
And for the record, I am trying my hardest to avoid all political writing/programming/B.S. Despite having been a political junkie for as long as I can remember, I just can’t bear it anymore. It makes me angry and crazy and who needs that? I will be as far away from Tampa as I can get when the Republicans convene in August. Yuck.