PressEthic

Niche news sites like Slashdot.org seem to be catching on quickly in the world of online news. Could people be turning more and more to pages like this to get the news they want?

Slashdot, a site that provides "News for Nerds," is a user-based site that posts news specifically relating to technology, computers, science, games, and more. Slashdot says they typically serve 80 million pages per month.

Everyone has their own preference when reading the news. Some just prefer to read the front page of the newspaper; some want the sports page, and some arts and leisure. Some people just have a specific column they want to read. In this way, it definitely seems like it would help to have sites specifically designed and geared towards people's unique interests.

However, on the one hand, it seems as if this would draw people away from the big mainstream news sites like CNN and the New York Times. If people can avoid sifting and filtering through mainstream news to find the things they're really interested in, they probably will. On the other hand, this may bring these big sites even more traffic if Slashdot provides links to their page and people click on it. However, people may also bypass the site by not clicking on the link if the Slashdot blurb provides them with enough information. The fact that individuals can read brief important snippets(especially snippets designed for their interests) seems to be the thing that draws people to sites like this. The news they want is packaged just the way they want it, and they can read and go.

This makes me wonder what other news sites think of Slashdot, especially those sites that have paid professionals running them, while Slashdot is run by its own users. Will these sites try to cater to people's personal interests in order to draw them back?

With the internet, the possibilities are endless, especially when users are creating things themselves. Slashdot is a pioneering instance of the people compiling news and information the way they want it. If news keeps going in this direction, everyone we will be able to find exactly what we want in terms of news.