Upon reading McChesney's piece I found one thing to really stick out. That is the concept of Newspapers taking the backseat to the Internet. Not only has the internet altered the way the news is reported it has altered the use of newspapers as well as the way the conglomerate news sources have shifted their reporting. For the most part, we can address news as progressing from the internet because we have the ability to receive "breaking news" through alerts and receive quick excerpts of situations moments after the situation. The question that arises for me is, does reporting the news faster really count as progression or does it only open the gate for inaccurate information? Has the internet pushed the newspaper back so far that it is a "dead" source?
When I think of the news, I think of dissecting what is true and what is false and then actually interpreting the news reported. I feel that the internet has caused us to be very precautionary because the quickest information isn't always the most accurate. In this article, you get a great insight as to how the news on the internet (in this case social media) can be both good and bad. The first thing you will notice is the picture that a 49 year old marathon runner "reported" and eventually became a vital piece of evidence in capturing the boston marathon suspects. If you read further you can see that that is not always the case. One suspect, who was a student and indian-american, had his picture uploaded to social media as "a suspect" and in reality he had no ties to the bombing. Within no time his photo spread across the internet until it was debunked. In this particular case, information with no validity became wide-spread simply because it was reported so fast. In just a touch of a button, this kids face can be "retweeted" to the world.
Something else I thought of was, why would we ever use a newspaper again? Ironically, when I looked for another link to share with you guys I stumbled across a website called "Newspaper Death Watch", so that's that. But in all seriousness, I believe the internet has given little meaning to the news. No longer is tomorrow's paper the "breaking news" and no longer is it efficient to look for job postings and no longer are cartoons shoved in front of kids. We can get all of these things so fast and so easily, the newspaper is pretty much "old news". From my experience, every time I pick up a newspaper I only use it to verify what I already know.
I wonder if you guys have similar thoughts. Do you use a newspaper? Why do you use it? Does it really serve a purpose anymore? Should we choose the internet or the newspaper? Can we trust the internet?
Let me know how you guys feel.
I really enjoyed reading this post! I take journalism classes at Ursinus and write for the school newspaper and I agree that it is a dying field. News will never die but the way that is it delivered is always going to be changing. We will never be able to go back to only reading newspapers like it was decades ago because of the increase in technology. I remember watching movies from years ago and it would show parents at the table reading the news via newspaper but I'm sure now if a movie came out showing the same thing, the parent would be reading it from their tablet. As a person who is really interested in journalism, it makes me really sad to see how the print journalism field is diminishing. I love reading a physical copy of a book or newspaper because it is so much more tangible. Reading on the internet makes me more prone to skim and be impatient with reading especially when there are multiple pages to go through. I hand out The Grizzly newspapers every week because I'm one of the editors and I love when people see me with a stack and ask to read it. The online version is always available but I like when people choose to read the physical version too. In general with internet vs. newspaper, I think more thought goes into the printed newspaper because it will be printed for everyone to read and you can't fix that. However, with the Internet, mistakes can be easily fixed. The internet is all about posting it first whether it's accurate or not which I think has become ridiculous because accuracy is so important in journalism. I hope printed newspapers never officially diminish in society because then what will happen to all the journalists at important news businesses such as The New York Times? I would love to work there but by the time I'm out of college and ready to get a job, will newspapers be dead? What do you guys think about newspapers dying?
ReplyDeleteSeems like we share a passion for newspapers and what they represent. When I think about the time frame of newspapers and how long they will last, I really have no clue. To be honest, I can not believe they haven't already died off. Me, personally, I read so much better with the tangible source you speak of. I almost wonder if my kids will ever use a newspaper.
DeleteThese are great thoughts. I can admit that I never really pay attention to the newspaper. I even took two journalism classes last semester, and I am still relying on my phone to give my quick-fix on what is happening in the world. I wish it wasn't like this though. What technology is now has everything to do with what it used to be, and newspapers were one of the first and most efficient ways to spread news. I feel like with today's technologies we are moving backwards with how efficient we share news. I never know what to believe and what not to believe anymore because I will google something that I am curious about and find multiple different answers. Most of the time, I know that the correct answer will lie within news websites, but then my laziness kicks in when I see how long the articles are. Basically, we all want the best of every world when it comes to news. We want the dependable traits of newspapers and the quickness of the internet. I do not think we will ever be able to succeed at fulfilling them both.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that you touch upon a whole new topic as well. Now-a-days it seems like we look for that short article or something that can sum it up real quickly which inevitably lets facts slip through the words. I think at some point that we will hit a limit but then again twitter only allows 143 characters and many people use twitter as their "news source".
DeleteThe newspaper is definitely becoming obsolete as a dominant medium for delivering news to the public, at least in out nation. The internet makes accessibility to news much easier, quicker, and more broad with the internet at your disposal. The only cost of this is that speed becomes a priority since competition has arose between agencies trying to get that story published first. This can hinder the quality of news posted to the internet in comparison to that of a newspaper. But at the same time, the internet allows for many voices to speak and deliver the "facts" so that history is not so easily told one sided. I think this for the most part is the reason why the internet is just destroying the newspaper industry in America.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely share similar thoughts and I definitely agree with you. Speed and Reliability kind of butt heads when it comes to news. There is definitely a million reasons why newspapers are fading but the internet seems to be the most blamed. It will be interesting to see how much "quicker" we get or how inaccurate the internet will become.
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