The New York Times article "Yahoo News Is Bracing for a Day of Heavy Traffic" in today's paper discussed the booming of Yahoo! News and how many media outlets have been and will benefit tomorrow from the presidential election.
At the eve of 2008's Presidential Election, there is uncertainty. Polls change every minute. The location of the candidates changes from day to day. And what better does the press and media cover than change?
In the article, it reported that Yahoo News had 38 million visitors in September, according to Nielsen Online. Yahoo! was second to MSNBC news online with 42 million visitors.
Yahoo!'s site had 80 million page views on election day in 2004 and 142 million the day after, when John Kerry conceded to George W. Bush. The vice president of Yahoo's programming and development predicts that tomorrow their website will have two to three times more traffic as it did in 2004. Why?
It is the same reason why some journalists fear newspapers will become extinct. People rely on the internet more and more for their news and entertainment. Advertisers now rely more on the internet. News can be announced instantly on a news website, even while it is occurring. These are things the press and even cable news cannot compete with.
Yahoo!'s Political Dashboard contains graphics such as an interactive map of the United States, which pops up with the RCP Poll averages for both candidates in that state. Top stories are also displayed, along with most blogged stories, and the feature "Create Your Own Scenario" which allows users to project what they feel will be the election results. Yahoo! has taken tools cable news uses for interaction and has given it to the public to use freely.
In our class, we use Twitter. It has become a source for instant information and news happening all over the country given by all sorts of people.
And while people have become to rely more on the internet for news, the election tomorrow will bring in viewers, site visitors, etc to all media outlets. It will be a busy and prosperous day for all media. And that is one good thing that has come out of the "debates", nasty campaign commercials, and relentless coverage of the candidates over the past two years. It is a time for the press to shine. And do what it does best (or for the biased and slandering news outlets, what they do worst).
Monday, November 3, 2008
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