An unrepentant and even gleeful television loyalist, Government Technology Associate Editor Chad Vander Veen added a inauguration post script in a recent GovLog post about how the conventional and new media compared in delivering the video the world wanted to watch last Tuesday.
There was a good reason for the herky jerky video from streaming sources. It turns out that Vander Veen was in the minority by choosing to watch the party on the national mall on television. (In the name of disclosure, I double dipped with the TV remote on one knee and my laptop on the other.)
Consider recently released numbers about the inauguration coverage from the Nielsen Media Research and its sister organization Nielsen Online. The former counted the total television and cable audience across 17 broadcast and cable networks at 37.8 million. For its part, Nielson Online reports that the Top 10 current events and news sites served up a unique audience of 48.7 million.
This may be an inflection point in the way that we use media. Broadcast and cable may have been able to deliver a more consistent signal but it is remarkable that a larger audience chose to make a little history of their own while watching a historic moment online. Make no mistake, the digital majority has spoken again. We would do well to listen and think carefully about what that means for meeting the expectations of generations that gravitate to the Internet but probably couldn't tell you that there were dedicated public access, educational and government (PEG) channels on cable.
There was a good reason for the herky jerky video from streaming sources. It turns out that Vander Veen was in the minority by choosing to watch the party on the national mall on television. (In the name of disclosure, I double dipped with the TV remote on one knee and my laptop on the other.)
Consider recently released numbers about the inauguration coverage from the Nielsen Media Research and its sister organization Nielsen Online. The former counted the total television and cable audience across 17 broadcast and cable networks at 37.8 million. For its part, Nielson Online reports that the Top 10 current events and news sites served up a unique audience of 48.7 million.
This may be an inflection point in the way that we use media. Broadcast and cable may have been able to deliver a more consistent signal but it is remarkable that a larger audience chose to make a little history of their own while watching a historic moment online. Make no mistake, the digital majority has spoken again. We would do well to listen and think carefully about what that means for meeting the expectations of generations that gravitate to the Internet but probably couldn't tell you that there were dedicated public access, educational and government (PEG) channels on cable.
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