By Kathleen Szot, account manager
“Information overload” is the subject of a recent article in The Telegraph, a UK newspaper. The article discusses the findings of a USC research team that set forth to amass all forms of media stored and sent in the world – from movies and books to e-mails and text messages.
The study concluded that in 1986 the average person received roughly 40 newspapers’ worth of information each day; in 2007, this figure leapt to 174.
For those of us who are active participants in the digital age of smartphones and social media, “overload” may be an understatement. How do our minds process it all? Reading with 
purpose and filtering information for significance becomes critical.
Reading with purpose is particularly relevant for one aspect of client service in which I engage on a daily basis: media monitoring. We scan print, online, TV and radio media for content with relevance to our client’s products, brand and industry. On any given day, our team receives hundreds of articles via search engines that seek out specific key words.
Searching for key words is a good place to start, but I’ve learned that developing your own filters is important in preventing information overload. Here is what I look for when reading for work or pleasure: (more…)
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