Get Mobile:
People consuming more news with mobile devices
Two ways to access the web when you're mobile. The first method requires regular visits to the chiropractor.
The Pew Research Centre’s 2012 State of the Media Report has been released and the highlight for digital journalists is the public is consuming more news, more often and for a longer period of time. However, they’re using mobile devices (iPhones, smartphones and tablets) to do so.
So should we be praising Apple Inc. for selling wonderful web-serving mobile devices which, you could argue, kicked off the mobile web revolution?
Perhaps, but credit should also go to news organizations for realizing the importance of the mobile web. Most prominent news media outlets now have a mobile app or mobile-optimized website so smartphone and tablet users don’t have to zoom in and out to read headlines and articles. Traditional media have been leaders in recognizing the future dominance of the mobile web and quick to embrace it.
They know that by 2013, people will spend more time surfing the web with mobile devices than desktop and laptop computers. We’ve seen the shift coming as smartphones now outsell PCs.
So… the moral of the story for news outlets that haven’t caught on yet: get mobile or get left behind.
To learn more about digital journalism, enrol in the New Media Journalism Certificate program offered by Simon Fraser University Continuing Studies. Click here to register for a June 23 information session on the program.