A month of new media

NPR's "Talk of the Nation" had an interesting interview today with Amy Webb, the editor and founder of Dragonfire, a "digital magazine about culture and news," who decided to go for 30 days without any sources of traditional news. This meant foregoing newspapers, television, radio and magazines (Webb even avoided billboards and the newspaper boxes on street corners) and relying solely on blogs, feeds and podcasts to get her news. Webb did admit that one morning, while driving to work, she had blown her experiment two hours in when she realized she had been "passively" listening to her local NPR station.

This got me thinking about whether I could do the same and I think if I made a deliberate effort I could do it. When I'm getting ready for work in the morning, you won't find me reading the paper or watching one of the morning news shows. Instead, you'd see a woman balancing her cereal bowl over her keyboard as she logs into Bloglines to read her feeds and to check her four primary e-mail accounts.

When asked by host Neal Conan if she would miss the traditional sources if she were to give them up permanently, Webb answered without hesitation. "I would. I noticed after a while that I was getting agitated being online all the time. It was nice to slow down and look at newspapers and magazines every now and then."

I would as well. Like Webb, this Amy also likes to lay in bed on Sunday morning drinking O.J. (this Amy doesn't do coffee) reading the Sunday paper and other magazines. And listening to Weekend Edition on NPR has become a regular part of my routine as well.

My news consumption is an equal and healthy mix of both traditional and new media that supplement rather than replace each other.

This now concludes this episode of Amy on her soapbox.