I am a bit behind on my reading, so I am recommending an article from last week's Economist about the news business. Great story on how not only newspapers are in a state of flux, but the entire way that people consume news has changed and continues to change. Some changes, like the easy availability of stories from around the world, are great. In fact, most changes have been great for the news-seeker, bad for the news-business.
The scariest fact in the story is from a poll by the Pew Center. It says that the share of 18-24 year olds who got no news at all the previous day rose from 24% to 34% over 10 years. Our youth are apparently too busy text messaging important things like "lol" to each other to even use the Google to find out what is going on.
This is not news to me. If you go back in this blog to Jan. 29 2008, you will find the results of a survey I gave my students about stuff going on in the world. Only 15 out of 57 could name the Gov. of their own state. None could name the Secretary of the Treasury, and fewer than half the Sec. of Defense, the low profile Condi Rice! It's frightening.
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