by Anne Connaughton
In today’s world of instant gratification, one fear is that newspapers are losing readers due to the volume of news presented, when only certain news stories interest a particular individual—the possible solution, is customization.
The ability to craft a news source catered completely to an individual’s tastes and preferences may sound like a distant dream, but in actuality, there is a service currently in existence that can accomplish this for readers.
Anyone who reads online news articles or blogs may notice a small, typically orange symbol with three white arcs somewhere on the page. This symbol accompanied by the initials RSS, indicate that article is available to be part of an RSS feed.
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and is a way to automatically compile news from online sources on topics of interest on an individual level. The first step is to download a news aggregator to collect the content. There are versions of news aggregators available for free downloading, and both Yahoo and Google offer aggregators as a way to include RSS on the homepage.
After acquiring an aggregator, any website with an RSS symbol can be added to the feed. Feeds can be as simple or complex as desired, depending on the span of interest.
Though this may sound like an easy and ideal way to collect news, a relatively small number of people are taking advantage of this technology. In a 2005 study conducted by Yahoo, only 12 percent of Internet users know what RSS feeds are, and only 4 percent of those people have intentionally used one.
“I’ve heard of it,” said Lauren Welty, 19, a biological science major from Grayson, Ga., “Maybe I got something about it in an email one time.”
Other university students were even less informed.
“I’ve seen the letters, but that’s it,” said Chelsea Williams, 19, an undecided major from Statesboro, Ga.
Andrea Orton, 19, an exercise science major from Grayson, Ga., spends a lot of time online but had never heard of RSS feeds, or even noticed the icon. “I’m not very observant though,” she said.
Williams believes it is a promising concept, however. She would be interested in RSS feeds so that she did not have to go searching for the latest updates on all the news that interested her, though she thinks she would use it more frequently for blog updates.
Welty agreed. “They could be popular if people actually knew about them,” she said, “Like if they were the front page story in the Red and Black.”
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ReplyDeleteAnne and I have very different writing styles. Most of this, I suspect, is due to her superior work ethic. She is a slow worker, revising as she goes, taking her time (and giving herself enough time to do so). She takes a lot of notes, and though she doesn't work from an outline, most of her notes in up in her story. Like me, though, Anne is anxious about reporting; talking to people as a student journalist can be pretty embarrassing.
Anne tried to spend a bit more time on her lead this go-round, but we agreed it could still use some work. I suggested it might be better to start with the second paragraph. If she wanted to reword the first, she might begin "When only certain..." and drop all the unnecessary stuff about "in today's world, etc."
A big issue with the piece that we discussed was terminology. I think the first step in writing a technology article is trying to get a solid grasp on the technology yourself. Anne may be confusing her terms a bit when she refers to aggregated RSS readers as RSS feeds and things like that -- it'll be pretty easy for her to fix those mistakes / ambiguities with a little online research, though.
As far as getting a new source goes, I think it may really benefit the reader (and maybe the reporting, too) to hear from someone who HAS heard of RSS and is familiar with the technology. Not necessarily an expert, but at least someone who has a firm grasp on it and uses it regularly (a.k.a. "a geek").