From a time when the core of the newspapers were ensembled by the cold and impersonal press releases of governmental institutions and the pure and simple declarationism of those which were considered protagonists of society, we’ve moved to a model of journalism that gets much closer to the interests and needs of readers.
Now any reader can interact and interpellate with the media, letting them know their own opinions and interpretations, as well as their agreements and disagreements with the contents they read, providing an interesting basis for feedback.
Beyond these explicit ways of knowing what readers think and desire, the media possesses technological tools that allow for parameterizing such interests, using metrics and analytics that measure the frequency and duration of readership of certain contents, as well as the topics that are reached for the most, and with that database it becomes possible to also identify the niches within those consumers.
We’ve merged from a one-way communication model to a two-way one, through which the media has a more complete radar for calling out the preferences of the readers and, to some extent, connect with them.
This dynamic is what has opened the way to a humanitarian journalism, which prioritizes all information regarding those things that affect our relatives’ and personal everyday lives, on the aspects of economy, health, security, education and job opportunities, including viable entrepreneurship.
Printed newspapers take into account the new tendencies of readership and use them as additional guides to structure their news searches, whether short, medium or long-term, aiming to be closer to the interests of readers instead of aliening to their critics.
Chronicles, reports, analyzes and investigations are genres that strive to reach this goal, because in the fundamental aspects they put humans in the center of these approaches, they transmit their experiences, aspirations, complaints and challenges in life, but at the same time they provide elements that help understand reality, covering the multiple angles of a problem or event.
Therefore, the visual field of what we call professional journalism has widened with these options that were not previously available. To know that there’s a new culture in the way of consuming news gives an excellent watchtower to look beyond the news and get closer to the audiences, touching the most sensitive fibers of their interests and preferences.
– Translated from Spanish by Randy Rodriguez.
Director's Thoughts 