please empty your brain below

That's
good
to
hear

Well I for one love the new digital news.

Sitting here in the Netherlands I can read the newspapers from, the UK, the USA, and from all around Europe; without leaving my living room.

Digital news - great.
News with no linear option - not so great.

Absolutely.

I love that I can get to the news on my phone but hate its tiny chunk format. Just because my screen is smaller than a newspaper doesn't mean my interest or attention span has shrunk similarly.

My news is presented to me in a linear fashion... It's called my twitter feed. I make sure I follow people who link off to stories that I wouldn't otherwise read. I've read more in-depth articles on the Guardian Website via twitter links than I would have done otherwise. I like the way it's gone.

I don't get that - broadcast TV and radio news are necessarily linear, but every other medium has some form of indexing - skim the headlines on your newspaper and read the articles that interest you - refer to other articles cited in the one you're reading, etc. And you yourself often add hyperlinks - another form of indexing!

I also prefer a linear format for delivering the headlines on the home page of a website.

Go to most news websites and you will struggle to work out which is the newest story on the site, the next newest etc.

It's a jumble with content scattered all over the place based less on temporal relevance than the editor's preferences.

Indexing when you know what you are looking for or want to be spoonfed - great.

Linear when you don't know what you are looking for or want to be sure you haven't missed anything - great.

Computer problem with an entry in the help file for it - great

Critical computer problem and you don't know what to search on so only option is to sit down with the manual and go through from start to finish - absolute nightmare when all you have is an online help file.

Even the dead tree versions are going this way. The Guardian used to have a back page where longer stories were continued, now it's used for adverts that presumably nobody looks at. Last week the front page of the paper had 4 stories, each of which broke off in mid-sentence to go to a different inner page of the paper, usually with additional material on further pages. How is my poor head supposed to retain four separate threads at once and pick them up again when I get to the continuation further in? And yes, I do like to read my paper front to back like a normal person. Phew, I feel better now I've got that off my chest - hurrah for linearity and Diamond Geezer!

I suppose the branching technique fits in with the way the web works. After all, people tend to follow web pages in a non-linear fashion.

However, I do agree with what you're saying: it is indeed easier to follow news stories in a linear fashion, and it definitely means that you are less likely to miss something interesting in amongst all the clutter.

Its a sign of aging to want things as suits you. Younger people, arguably, will become as fixed as you on the tree indexing model. Doubtless there will be some other developments further down the line that will offend these present youngsters. Roll with the punches DG or you'll get a black and blue face.

Well I for one am glad this blog isn't going to go the same way! I don't want to (potentially) miss a thing.

Amen to that !,corporate,pre-decided glossy news. Mrs Jones has lost her cat,read more on page 8O9.

I really have no idea what you're talking about. I'm assuming it's not something that comes up when one gets the news predominantly from the wireless.

You've neglected to include items from the Bureau of Pre-news ala Daily Mail.











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