Mainstream Media still doesn't get it. And by it, I mean the Internet.

Have a look at this news story.   It's the news story about the civil service report that caused the fun debate over at Daifallah.com that I sent you too in the last post. But in this post I'm not interested in the substance of it. I'm interested in the lack of links and specificity. CTV reports:

 

"Canada's public servants earn an average salary far higher than those in the private sector, while the core public service workforce has swelled to its largest size in a decade, according to a new report. The Treasury Board of Canada posted the 800-page study on its website last week."

 

There's no title to the report and no link to the report from CTV's website.

 

This mean's that CTV is either collectively very stupid or that it still wants to tightly control the dissemination and interpretation of information. I'm guessing it's the latter.

 

This is hardly the first time I've seen this. I can't begin to quantify the number of times I've read an online article written by a mainstream media publication that failed to include relevant links. The exact same thing happens in news stories in the printed paper. A story is written about something fantastic happening on the web and the url of the website isn't included.  In 2007 this is completely unacceptable. I know that media does not want to be a free advertiser, but in this case it is failing to serve it's customers who are hungry for information, and, whenever possible, for direct access to the primary source of that information. I am already starting to get more of my news from Google or from aggregators like   www.fark.com and www.digg.com or from topical online magazines like  www.slate.com and www.salon.com and www.huffingtonpost.com than I do from the Globe and Mail or CNN or CTV.  If mainstream media doesn't want to keep up, that's fine. It'll just get left behind. That's cool. We don't really NEED old time MSM companies  if they won't keep up with innovations as basic as a hyperlink.  I don't own a buggywhip either and I don't really miss it.