Customers - Shouting is more fun than thinking - "The Media Equation - Obama’s Challenges Reaching a Public Ready to Pounce" - NYTimes.com

Put the specifics of the very US-focused debate aside for a moment. What's at issue here is the communication of information that triggers a response among a significant number of people. How does this apparent fact affect, or how should it affect, the way newspapers conduct their business? Newspapers have both a role that they believe they should play generally and yet an unavoidable need to understand how people are reacting to what news and information they receive. If newspapers want to come out these crises successfully, they are going to have to mount an effort that takes this sort of like-it-or-not reality into account, no?