Local media left out as Duke students look for basketball info

Interesting moment at Duke Thursday in a graduate political science class. The professor, to make a point about the changing nature of the media, asked the group of 20-some students where they went for information on the Duke men's basketball team.

Goduke.com, the school website, was the first answer. Then The Chronicle, the student newspaper. Then ESPN. And after some coaxing, DukeBasketballReport.com (which picks out reports of interest in Duke fans) and DukeBluePlanet.com, the official site of the team.

So what was missing? The News & Observer ... The Durham Herald-Sun ... WRAL ... WTVD ... Local radio shows. ... Shoot, no mainstream local media was even mentioned (not even the Capital Sports Report). It was an interesting moment that highlighted how much consumer patterns are changing and how many options there are when it comes to media products.

Also interesting was that none of the options the students mentioned (except for ESPN) were sources that did unbiased reporting on their own, and of course ESPN will cover Duke but does not do so on a daily basis. An interesting moment, and a telling one as media habits change.