A bit of a ranty one this, but over the past few weeks I’ve found myself increasingly unsatisfied with internet. Part of this is due to my addiction to the net, checking Twitter, BBC Sport etc which compels me to look regularly and, unsurprisingly, quicker than juicy content can be uploaded.
A smaller case of this problem is exemplified by regular watching of Sky Sports News where you are sucked into reading the ticker at the bottom of the screen in the hope that something new (and possibly interesting) is updated. The waiting is as addictive as the content itself (and subliminally learning top goal scorers in La Liga).
In a world of 24 hour news channels and constantly updated newspaper websites the reality is that the world simply isn’t that interesting. Alternatively, we’re so numbed by the updates that it’s hard to appreciate the privilege we have access to. But more than this, I think that the quality of the content on the net is frankly not that good (I appreciate the irony of this comment).
With the economics of online journalism being as they are, it is becoming increasingly rare to find good quality content. I’m as big a fan of Mail Online as anyone, but there’s only so much cheese I can take before I feel bloated. I’m overly reliant on The Guardian for essays, though crave an alternative voice which just isn’t provided in the same depth by other news sites. I had big hopes for HuffingtonPost, but I find the site so busy and the articles so cut and pasted that it fails on the initial promise of providing an online soap box for high profile bloggers.
Perhaps the world of quality online writing is going the way of most blogs, we start with great intentions and then just lose interest.
Ultimately (and slightly worried this puts me in the Murdoch camp) there surely needs to be a way of making the economics work so that good quality journalism can be paid for? I just don’t think the right forum has been found yet. Sites like SabotageTimes touch on it, but I’ve yet to see a great example of it yet. When I work out the answer I may finally stop needing to watch Sky Sports News…
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