Turning News Into Knowledge

In economics, the law of diminishing returns states that beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less additional output.

So, what does this have to do with media analysis?

Simply put, media analysis, or any other business activity, is no different from a production line.

You need to add business value to any activity and there is a fine line between too much information and not enough.

Too much information creates information overload. This can be time-consuming and, therefore, not cost-effective.

Too little information doesn’t give you the value or context you need. This can leave your decision-making rudderless.

Media analysis is about answering why something is happening or has happened, so you can take action. That action can come in the form of learning from your mistakes and correcting the way you engage people or situations, or it can come in the form of being able to adjust your tactics in real-time to generate real measurable results.

It’s all about return on investment (ROI). That’s what will dictate what and how you monitor and measure your activities via the media.

In fact, at MediaMiser, this is how we decide what features we’ll add to our ‘News into Knowledge’ system. People and organizations need to derive value from the information that is collected and analyzed in a cost effective manner.

Furthermore, MediaMiser invests time and energy researching the why and exploring ways to take action on it. That’s a big reason why we created our Resource Center and our blog, Turning News into Knowledge.

We’ve added a new item to our PR glossary at www.mediamiser.com.

This one details the strengths and limitations of assorted types of media. Take a look, and let us know what you think!

Statistics Canada has just released a study on media consumption in Canada titled Keeping up with the times: Canadians and their news media diet. While you can certainly take issue with some of the findings since the data comes from a survey in 2003, I think what the study does highlight is the importance of news to Canadians and our tendency to rely on multiple news sources.

While we are bombarded and force-fed advertising messages, often against our will, the news is something that we specifically seek out. It has a much higher degree of credibility and authenticity.

Some of the highlights of the study:

- 89 per cent of Canadians followed news and current affairs frequently (daily or several times a week);

- among the frequent users group 83 per cent depended on more than one media source;

- television ranked as the #1 source of news among frequent users of the news, with 91 per cent, followed by newspapers (70 per cent), radio (53 per cent), internet (30 per cent), and magazines (23 per cent), although I’m guessing more recent data will see the internet leap-frog radio and battle newspapers soon for the #2 spot;

- frequent users born outside of Canada were more likely to use the internet as a news source;

- news junkies were more politically engaged in non-voting activities (demonstrations, public meetings, volunteering for a political party, etc.); and

- in the demographics category, the study found that the frequent users group is more likely to be comprised of married men with incomes of $60,000 or more.

So while there’s not a lot of new or surprising information there, the study illustrates the important role the news plays in the media mix in Canada, and gives you an idea of the valuable insights that can be gained by analyzing the news.