In Overload! Journalism’s Battle for Relevance in an Age of Too Much Information, a new method of strategic planning took place. When The Associated Press hired Context, a research company, to conduct a study of young-adult news consumption around the world, they weren’t expecting the results they received. They thought it would turn out to be more of an entertaining presentation. Rather, the results showed that “many young consumers craved more in-depth news but were unable or unwilling to get it.” This honestly doesn’t surprise me because many people my age are too lazy or just not interested enough to make an effort to find the news they set out for. As someone who works two jobs and goes to college full-time, I don’t really have much time to search for news unless it is presented to me. The only way I will be informed of something going on in the world is over dinner, on Facebook, or if my coworkers are talking about it at work. Of course there will be some information provided by the television, but I don’t have as much time nor interest to watch the news over other shows.
Even though it seems technology is increasingly more in demand, I still believe journalism has its relevance. It may not be as strong as it once was, but everything fades eventually. I’m sure technology will fade at some point as well, even if that may be hard to believe in today’s society. Something better always comes along. With all of the technology that we possess, we produce a lot more information that we can absorb, which leads to news consumers feeling overloaded. This is no surprise.