Posts Tagged ‘print journalism’
Print media still relevant today
Published in the Daily Herald on June 9, 2007.
I have a deep, lurking fear that not only is the newspaper industry ailing, but might find its end in the 21st century.
The competition — television, radio and the Internet — and some of their obvious advantages keep me awake at night, afraid that America’s newspaper industry will be comatose by the time I’m ready for it.
When I think of the American Revolution, the civil rights movement, any of those textbook “American” moments in history, I automatically imagine the brave reporters that made sure the news was printed, before typewriters, television and Bill Gates.
Perhaps it’s just my own personal bias against broadcast journalism and the unreliability of the Internet, but I can’t imagine a world without the daily newspaper. It is a beacon of the First Amendment, free speech with a responsibility to the people, not to big corporations or oneself.
As a young American, I feel an innate, somewhat selfish responsibility to the country’s future — not for progeny or future generations, but because I’ll be living it.
In general, I’m all for progressive ideas. Technology can change society in a good way. But I can’t get myself to the point that I see the news media industry working primarily over the Internet as a good thing.
I admit it, I used the Internet to research this very article. I read columns that, if they were printed only, I would never have come in contact with. I realize that this widespread exposure is a good thing, but what about the industry’s rich history and tradition? Shouldn’t we fight to keep this part of American culture alive?
Also, why watch broadcast news when it spends more time on the weather than it does on the doings of the local police department or the conflict in Darfur? Or, if weather is what you’re interested in, why watch an entire newscast to get to tomorrow’s forecast? With a newspaper, you have more control over what you read and what you skip over.
But you have that same control on the Internet, you say. Perhaps the Internet gives the new amateur media, such as bloggers, too much freedom. Anyone with a bit of tech savvy can create a legitimate Web site that seems unbiased and knowledgeable but instead promotes one’s own opinions, not the facts.
Congress has tried to limit free speech on the Internet through the Communications Decency Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court twice, saying that it was suppressing First Amendment rights. It is almost impossible to keep the Internet honest. Libel laws are more lax for Web sites than for newspapers.
When dealing with smaller Web sites, not owned by companies such as MSN or AOL, there isn’t the factor of money to make writers stick to the facts. Also, anonymity protects them from persecution on a large scale.
The Associated Press gives services to 5,000 radio and TV outlets along with 1,700 newspapers. That’s almost three times as many radio and TV stations as newspapers. Stories of mass layoffs, anemic circulation numbers and decreased funding run rampant through the newspaper world while TV and radio are in their prime.
How can we save the industry from disappearing? As readers, I hope that you’ll stay in contact with your local papers. Tell the editors what you pay them to do. You have a power over newspapers that you don’t have over television, radio, magazines or the Internet. You can influence newspapers — remind editors that you’re still interested and you won’t let your local paper whisper itself into bankruptcy and oblivion.
Despite these longings for the days of a booming newspaper industry, I realize that I, along with the rest of the journalistic community, need to recognize a changing industry and evolve with it, making adjustments where they are due, for not all ailments are fatal.
Print journalism is evolving, but not necessarily toward extinction. We can keep the newspaper industry, that beacon of free speech and democracy, alive. At least until I retire.
