Internet Killed the TV Star

Via the increasingly vital Lost Remote, Cory Bergman provides some very good reasons why The Web is the Medium of Choice for Big National Stories. For starters...

The sheer amount of information is not the best fit for television. TV is a linear medium. Bits of information are delivered in real time, one after another, and then they disappear. There's a finite amount of coverage that can be delivered. Unless, of course, you want to watch TV all day and night.

But the internet can display a wide variety of information and make it available on demand. It's more tactile, more useful than television. Over the past few days of watching TV and browsing the internet, I discovered the most immediate and comprehensive information online. And I invested far less time in getting up to date.

I couldn't agree more. Why watch a news organization's coverage when you can peruse those journalists' source material, not to mention a global collection of pictures, analysis and contact information. From the comfort of your favorite bean-bag chair, you can research a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, flip through hundreds of images and clips and donate to your responding relief effort before that stodgy anchorman ever stops clearing his throat.

For now, TV is still the one medium that bests conveys raw emotion. Through sight, sound and editing, television can pack a visceral punch not found in the pages of a magazine or in the clicks on a website. But with on-demand web video racing to perfection, its only a matter of time before that box in the corner of your living room becomes something of a relic. I'm not suggesting that TV's are on the way out, but I guarantee you my grandkids will someday look at a current-day set and ask where the keyboard is.