Traditional media companies face the increasingly daunting task of hooking already-inundated audiences, but they also have more tools than ever to lure them.
Source: For News Outlets Squeezed From the Middle, It’s Bend or Bust – The New York Times
At Lewis & Clark College, our environmental studies majors and other students learn new modes of analysis, communication, and engagement we broadly group under the umbrella of digital scholarship. Sometimes they wonder if they are writing to a non-audience: “Who is paying attention to me?” We teach them skills in public digital scholarship, featuring a number of opportunities via the Share & Engage menu on our help site, but still it’s a good question.
This article suggests that the question is by no means restricted to public digital scholarship: the entire digital media world is in a similarly fragile position, where not getting attention is a matter of business life and death. And perhaps this is no digital phenomenon alone: have you ever wondered why no one has yet discovered you? Well, it’s often a matter of sheer luck.
But this article offers advice: “bend or bust.” Write in ways people want to read. Don’t let go of substance, but don’t relax either: it takes work to get people to pay attention to you. In this way, what our students learn is innovative, yes, and highly marketable today, but the same lesson they need to learn as they move into a world that is increasingly frenzied and indifferent.
Leave a Reply