August 31, 2007 US consumption of news – De Palma strikes at the heart BrandingMarketing Share this post: As an American living overseas, you sometimes get bombarded with the (often well merited) criticism of American provincialism. And, the general line of argument centres around what type of news Americans follow. A recent study by McKinsey encouraged possibly a different conclusion. The report suggests that when the Americans read news, they are brand promiscuous. On average, an American will use 12 different sources in a week for his/her news, going across 5 different platforms (tv [6], internet [3], magazines, newspapers and radio). And, considering the cross-frontier nature of internet news which accounts for 1/4 of the sources, one has to imagine that Americans are thus being fed more than a local-only news, with a wider range of opinions (unless the internet source is just the online version of the tv or newspaper). Of course, this same spectre is happening in other countries where, similarly, the typical tv newscast is somewhat biased or localized. Brand promiscuity with regard to the news provides hope for the democratization — or rather the liberalization — of news for many countries. As testament to internet-generated news, the soon-to-be-released Brian de Palma film, “Redacted,” was nourished by the internet to get to the bottom of the [horror] story of the US war in Iraq, and features the story of an Iraqi girl raped and killed by US military soldiers. This article describes de Palma’s own dissatisfaction with the general news and how he used internet sources, including blogs, to find out about the truth. De Palma is quoted as saying, “It’s all out there on the Internet, you can find it if you look for it, but it’s not in the major media. The media is now really part of the corporate establishment.” Launched at the Venice Film Festival, Redacted has clearly caused a stir. Came across Journalism 2.0 (good read and justly points out that the title of the study is misleading) and Dick Stroud on the same survey. Stroud concludes “don’t waste your precious marketing dollars on news related promotions to the young (ish).” Just going to have to qualify the news to the younger generation is my opinion. NEWSletter Subscribe to Minter’s Bi-Weekly NEWSletter and receive a free copy of the exclusive and updated 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation Your Gift For Signing Up 8 Golden Rules of an eReputation SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed! branding, internet, marketing, media, Radio, television Minter Dial Minter Dial is an international professional speaker, author & consultant on Leadership, Branding and Digital Strategy. After a successful international career at L’Oréal, Minter Dial returned to his entrepreneurial roots and has spent the last ten years helping senior management teams and Boards to adapt to the new exigencies of the digitally enhanced marketplace. He has worked with world-class organisations to help activate their brand strategies, and figure out how best to integrate new technologies, digital tools, devices and platforms. Above all, Minter works to catalyse a change in mindset and dial up transformation. Minter received his BA in Trilingual Literature from Yale University (1987) and gained his MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1993). His newest book Heartificial Empathy, Putting Heart into Business and Artificial Intelligence, bowed in December 2018 and won the Book Excellence Award 2019 as well as being shortlisted for the Business Book Awards 2019. It's available in Audiobook, Kindle and Paperback. He is also co-author of Futureproof (Pearson, Sep 2017) and sole author of The Last Ring Home (Myndset Press, Nov 2016), a book and documentary film, both of which have won awards and critical acclaim. Minter has a new book on leadership, You Lead, How being yourself makes you a better leader, published by Kogan Page, that released January 2021. It's easy to inquire about booking Minter Dial here. View all posts by Minter Dial Previous post Next post