Newscoma

Jack Lail has this over at his personal blog, Random Mumblings.

Nearly three times as many people ages 18 to 29 mention the internet as mention newspapers as a main source of election news (49% vs. 17%). Nearly the opposite is true among those over age 50: some 22% rely on the internet for election news while 39% look to newspapers. Compared with 2004, use of the internet for election news has increased across all age groups. Among the youngest cohort (age 18-29), TV has lost significant ground to the internet.
That’s from a new Pew Center for the People and the Press survey.

I think the Internet has dominated this election. In 2004 we saw the rise and fall of Howard Dean but his race was revolutionary as it helped mold what we have seen today. All of the presidential candidates have benefited well with fund raising, viral videos and grassroots Internet interest. Bear with me the next two days, because I for one see a lot of history being made and not for the obvious reasons you might think.

My only hope though is that the presidential race for 2012 doesn’t start on Nov. 5.

The internet is an amazing place. For all the pictures you may want of people making sad faces about the state of the markets, you can go to Sad Guys on Trading Floors.

People want information immediately. Ahh, the days of scooping news for traditional outlets has been replaced to a large degree by finding on the innertubes.

And people want this immediacy on everything.

Meet NBC, who own the exclusive rights to the Olympics.

Meet a public who doesn’t want to wait 12 hours to see the opening ceremonies. This new audience wants it as it happens.

And this creates a problem.

NBC’s decision to delay broadcasting the opening ceremonies by 12 hours sent people across the country to their computers to poke holes in NBC’s technological wall — by finding newsfeeds on foreign broadcasters’ Web sites and by watching clips of the ceremonies on YouTube and other sites.

In response, NBC sent frantic requests to Web sites, asking them to take down the illicit clips and restrict authorized video to host countries. As the four-hour ceremony progressed, a game of digital whack-a-mole took place. Network executives tried to regulate leaks on the Web and shut down unauthorized video, while viewers deftly traded new links on blogs and on the Twitter site, redirecting one another to coverage from, say, Germany, or a site with a grainy Spanish-language video stream.

This is more important than you would think. Traditional media knows that they need to control their “product” but with the Internet, that is becoming increasingly more difficult.

So, what’s the answer? I don’t know but I do know that traditional models are being torn apart. And maybe, just maybe, the suits at the network should have taken this under consideration.

I’ve often said that in this new age of communication, if I had to have a choice between a decent laptop or a high-definition television, I’d take the laptop.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, times are changing.

I wouldn’t have known the instant reaction about Sara Lacy’s interview with Mark Zuckerberg and how the audience absolutely went for blood over what is being called a trainwreck.

AUSTIN, Texas — They came expecting a civilized, one-on-one discussion, but they got what some attendees described as “a train wreck.”

Ballroom A of the Austin Convention Center was packed to capacity on Sunday evening for an hour-long intervew with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the keynote speaker at this year’s South By Southwest Interactive festival. The 23-year-old billionaire founder of the social networking site was interviewed on stage by author and journalist Sarah Lacy. Using her unique, friendly style of interviewing — closer to two friends chatting than a straight question-and-answer session — Lacy tried to get the notoriously tight-lipped Zuckerberg to open up. But the discussion rarely strayed beyond the usual business fare and eventually descended into a string of awkward moments punctuated by the audience’s heckling.

“Talk about something interesting,” one attendee yelled about half way through the keynote. The remark was met with waves of cheering and applause.

Meanwhile, members of the audience participated in a backchannel discussion on Twitter, with users of the microblogging site directing most of their animosity at Lacy’s unorthodox interview technique.

“Never, ever have I seen such a train wreck of an interview,” said Jason Pontin on Twitter. “Poor girl, flirtatiously awful tho’ she was.”

This all happened in a matter of about three hours. It hit the Internet immediately.

Lacy went on later to put on Twitter:

seriously screw all you guys. I did my best to ask a range of things.

Yep, them there internets are fast and so much of it was done on Twitter and in instant fashion.

Grabbing the popcorn and sitting back.

There was even a cartoon put up instantly.

It’s stuff like this that changes the game of journalism, blogging and social media networking platforms. And I’m watching. Man, cause the game is changing.

We have a lot to learn and it’s happening right now.

Damn, if it doesn’t make want me to go to Austin next year.

I’m having keeping up with all of these days. I really need to practice better time management.

I’m guessing you better get busy dosey-do-ing.

Dear Homer,

Remember that big freak-out I had Saturday morning about Asa Corn? Remember all I could do was spit and look all menacing and acted really weird because I couldn’t articulate what I was trying to say?

Remember me sputtering?

Well, my pal Aunt B. has a few words for a young person she also has in her life that is Asa Corn’s age. She doesn’t sputter. She didn’t even stutter once like I did:

First, you are embarking on what can be the most difficult time in your life.  It won’t necessarily be.  I don’t want to freak you out unnecessarily.  But you’re so smart and 13-18 seems pretty much designed to make smart, confident, outgoing kids’ lives into weird hells.  Part of this is just life.  Part of it is that, for the first time, you’ll be facing incredibly important challenges and you won’t have anything to judge it against.  Believe me.  Your whole life, you will find you have put your faith in the wrong people.  The first time it happens, it sucks so bad you almost can’t believe a person can go through it and live.  But after a few times, you start to recognize the people that are no good for you long before it gets to the point where they can hurt you.

Please go read the rest over there. She says it better than I can and you’ll see what she’s talking about when you head to her place.

Damn words. I just don’t know how to always use them with people I love. So I’ll let B. do it for me.

I love you, Homer.

Your Sister,

Newscoma