What do you want from me ?, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.
Our gray hairs (or lack thereof) and wrinkle lines document years spent parsing what you, dear listener/user, want to see, read, or experience on the website of your NPR News Station of choice. We are tired and weary, but obsessively determined to crack this nut.
The use of the possessive before NPR above is intended. The airwaves belong to you, Joe & Jill Q. Public. Many (most?) of you dutifully reach for the credit card when asked to pay our bills. Some even work for 90.9 gratis, and I’ve become accustomed to the familiar faces stationed at the phone banks that sprout up in the event room this time every year.
Sadly—and I suspect this is the case with many other media organizations—our barometer often registers interior conditions only. So yes, we are in need of a couple of weatherman to tell us which way the wind blows outside the walls of 890 Commonwealth Avenue.
Within these walls it’s the special effects that the folks are flocking to. Flash leaves ‘em cooing. Large, utterly gratuitous images have been know to induce languorous, hypnogogic states. And video? Forget about it.
So, how about it? What do you, the listener/user, want on wbur.org? Is there something beyond the live stream and schedule that is compelling enough—from either a utility or content standpoint—to interest more users in the site? Or is that it … game, set, match?
And now to take a break from this self-indulgent pleading to remind you that tonight is social media gathering number trois. Hope to see you there. And maybe together we can tackle this beast of a problem before it tackles me.
[...] the ride has been too much fun to get off just yet. What I really am hoping for are some answers to this as well generating some movment towards [...]
Less programs grasping at the headlines (lipstick on pigs, Palin as feminist) and more in-depth examination of the issues. Oh, wait. That’s a criticism of the media in general…
And you are welcome to express that criticism here and elsewhere, but dammit, don’t do it from behind the cloak of anonymity. You can’t change things lurking in the shadows.
That said, I share your concerns about the media’s focus on gloss at the cost of substance. I take some solace from the wellspring of alternatives available online and those trailblazing citizen-journalists.