Comparing news and the internet

News websites mean that people do not have to buy newspapers and can select the news that they want to know about rather than reading a whole newspaper to find an article that interests them. Younger people may be encouraged to find out more news online as they are more likely to use the internet than read newspapers. The content of news websites often differs from that in newspapers as there are links online to related articles and so there is a broader variety of news online from different topics, especially celebrity news. Online news means that people can select what news appeals to them without having to read a whole newspaper to find the news that they want. However, this could also mean that people are restricting the news that they consume as they may be encouraged to read other articles in a newspaper that they would not look for online.

I found a specific article in the Daily Mail newspaper about X Factor and I then went onto the Daily Mail website and typed in X Factor Danyl and the article appeared in a list of X Factor articles. This was a very easy way of accessing and locating a specific article and was easier than reading a whole newspaper to find it.
On the webpage there were many links to various related articles and a hundreds of articles related to X Factor, creating a broader variety of news that is restrcited in just a newspaper. The related articles are either about Danyl or the other contestants in X Factor which would interest people who are reading the article and who would probably want to read related articles. The online article is also an extended version of that in the newspaper accompanied by photographs of the show and information about the other acts and references to other related articles which encourages readers to read read other articles online.


I interviewed 10 people on their news consumption. After interviewing my parents, I found that they found out most of the news from newspapers and on television. My dad, like many other people like him works in the city and reads the free newspaper on the commute to work, saying it was easier to get the news from this than on his phone as internet access on his phone is quite slow and the newspaper is free on the train. I found that most working people read newspapers for news but agree that if finding a specific article or looking for news whilst at work will use online websites as they have broader information on them and make it easier to find specific news.
Of the younger people I interviewed, I found that most of them also read newspapers daily for news as their parents bought them at home. However they were much more likely to use the internet to find out news than older people as they spend more time on the internet. I also found that teenagers appear to be more interested in celebrity, television and sport news, for example my friend Raechelle aged 18 often checks celebrity news online such as X Factor and Big Brother news as there is more of this type of news online than in newspapers. Most of the younger people I interviewed often use news websites when trying to find a certain article or researching in depth for school work rather than buying and reading a whole newspaper.
Most people I interviewed agreed that there was much broader news available online than in newspapers and access to online websites makes it easier to read news online than in newspapers or on television, however it seems that the younger generations are more likely to read news online as they can select what appeals to them.