Reading or Watching the News… Which is Better?

This subject is one I’ve been juggling around for a while, and I’m wondering if I’m one of the last people on earth who would rather read a news article rather than watch it. The reason, is that over the past year, I’ve noticed an obvious insurgence of video being posted in lieu of an actual news article, and I have to admit… the entire idea doesn’t enthrall me.

The reason behind my anti-video attitude is twofold. The main reason, is that most of the time while I’m on the PC, working or not, I’ll be listening to music. The last thing I want to do is to mute it just to be able to listen to a news item. Secondly, I prefer reading, because I find I garner more details about the story that way, and in most cases, it’s also faster. Plus, there’s no need to wait up to 30 seconds before being able to actually read it, as would be the case with most videos.

At the time of writing, and ultimately the reason I decided to pose this overall question, there’s a news site with three articles that pique my interest… all being video. Instead of clicking on any of them, I click on none, and just convince myself that the news either isn’t important, or interesting. For me, this “issue’ raises a question. Are the huge media outlets lazy? After all, it’s much easier to just paste an already-recorded video to the site rather than write a news post. Or, do the majority of people genuinely prefer video over text? Am I in the minority here?

Even as I write this, I feel like I am. After all, video on the Internet is far from being a fad, and it’s grown at an alarming rate. Plus, while I seemingly refuse to watch video on the Web, that’s not entirely the case. I regularly watch video at sites like YouTube, for example. But in that case, I go to sites like that for the video… I don’t expect text. On a news site, it’s vice versa.

In talking to a few friends and family members over the past few months about it, I know I’m not alone, but I am still wondering if myself and everyone I know who shares a similar opinion is in the vast minority. My question is this. Would you rather watch news video or read a real article? Or do you even care?