Is television news being stood up?

Image source: Author screen capture

Over the past few weeks One News At 6pm has changed their "coming up" segment before the first ad break to include the approximate length of time (in minutes) until an advertised story will screen.

Clearly this is an attempt to lasso viewers into watching further into the bulletin, even if they wander off during the ad break. However, is this an effective strategy in a digitally switched on society?

When I see an interesting story previewed, I've been finding myself drawn to Google News to find out more straight away, rather than waiting the advertised four minutes or more.

If TVNZ aim to up their "Generation Y" ratings by asking these viewers to make an appointment with the upcoming story, they seem to have miscalculated. However, what this example does point out is that different media act as different levels in chains of mediators.

Image source

I don't tend to sit down and watch a six o'clock televised news bulletin, but if my parents have the television news on in the background I may be exposed to an interesting story and pursue it further on the internet. In this way, television is still acting as a gatekeeper, influencing what news I access online.

Television and newspapers may have lost ground as a dominant form of news media, but the interplay between offline and online news is affecting our interaction with news. The message isn't in the medium, it's in the media.