I was like every other student who was majoring in Journalism. I looked forward to the thrill of reporting the "TRUTH" to everyone in the world. But as of now, I guess me and about a million other people share the same dream. People don't have to take a photography class to capture the perfect image, just a camera phone ready to take the shot. Oh, and those writing and grammar classes aren't needed either. Just substitute all meaningful words with countless omg's and an excessive amount of exclamation points. These are not the conventions of news reporting that I've learned about in my journalism classes. These of are of a whole new breed. This new type of news reporting is, citizen journalism.
It use to take days for news to reach different places. Now with the click of a mouse, news can travel within seconds to other parts of the world, thousands of miles away. Ordinary people are now a source that contain information that a reporter or newspaper wouldn't have access to. That's why a lot of newspaper's websites have created a link, where people send in information, and pictures that they have about a news story. An example of this type of reporting was when there were protest after the Iran presidential election. People watched these protest but nothing shocked people more when there was footage of the Iranian police shooting people, and the footage was live. That up close video footage has never been seen that raw since footage from the front lines of the Vietnam War. And all of the footage was gotten, thanks to someones camera phone.
According to The State of the Media website, "news organizations are leaning towards citizens as sources rather than journalist". As I stated before a lot of the footage and pictures that we see now are from people present at the scene of the story. And due to new social sites such as Facebook, and especially YouTube, people don't have to search far for the news. Many of us have been sent emails that contain news, that hasn't even broken yet. So whats the need for a newspaper? None. With new communication technologies invented everyday, it makes it easier for people like you and myself to document whats going on.
News papers are continuing to suffer from the lose of people actually reading their printed news papers. With most newspapers moving their papers to websites, their days are slowly coming to an end. The Washington Post reported that "U.S.newspaper circulation has hit it's lowest level in seven decades..". The competition that the newspapers are experiencing now, extends beyond other popular newspapers. It starts now with the citizen and their phone or camera. So now when you feel as if you want to make an impact , make sure that your phone is charged and ready to record breaking news.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Journalism and the Net
In our evolving media society there has been a marked shift in the primary medium in which journalism is consumed. Specifically, this came in the transition from the printed form of news to online sources. For many this signals the end of an era and shakes the very ground which the discipline stands on, however I believe this viewpoint to be relatively melodramatic.
If one were to believe this last statement then they also would have to agree that it marks an entirely new and strangely exciting era, with free press prevailing for the masses. Anyone with Internet access can gain the very same information that their counterparts have purchased at the newsstands. For one to spend their money on something that they could have easily accessed for free online is laughable, however we cannot forget also that those with internet access consist of certain niche of individuals, although not necessarily the smallest demographic by any means.
Those people that do not have access are therefore excluded from this “free” exchange of information. Also, the Internet is not necessarily the purest form in which to present any type of mass media because, inevitably, the message that is presented becomes skewed by the advertising supporting its production. Without commercial support online news sources would not exist. Several instances, in attempting to access an online news sources website, I have been assaulted by numerous advertisements. Most often these will take up nearly the entirety of the computer screen and for some odd reason will be exceedingly difficult to close out. I am sure for some individuals, this type of blatant commercialism may draw them in and even take over the initial interest to view the news situations. It just makes me sick.The demise of the Newspaper, and Democracy!!
In this day and age the need for newspapers is slowly but surely on its way to not being needed at all. There are so many more ways that we can get our news information now, we can watch television, go on the internet. These both take less than half the time it takes to go out to the gas station etc. and buy a newspaper for a few dollars. Another positive about the internet is that it is obviously free, there is no fee for using the internet and that is very convenient for its users.
However, there are also some negatives about having the internet. One being, not everyone in our society has good access to the internet. Not everyone has a computer at home, which means getting the internet would mean having to leave your home. Another negative about using the internet for all your news needs is that when everyone is able to comment on what is being written about, you are only exposed to certain perspectives of the story and not all of them.
The demise of the newspaper is also really affecting the way our democracy works. There are many reasons, one is that the internet, especially blogging lets people share their thoughts online, and it’s free for people to do it. It is also affecting our democracy in the fact that it keeps the information up to date that is being written about. There are also some negatives that will occur if the newspaper industry comes to an end. For example, there are a lot of celebrity, soft news that comes out of the internet and broadcast media. We will always have information on the celebrities of our time. However, will we still know everything that goes on in the white house? Or when a shooting has occurred? The newspaper industry and democracy feed off each other. So, if and when the newspaper industry dies it will be a lot harder to produce powerful consistent news.
However, there are also some negatives about having the internet. One being, not everyone in our society has good access to the internet. Not everyone has a computer at home, which means getting the internet would mean having to leave your home. Another negative about using the internet for all your news needs is that when everyone is able to comment on what is being written about, you are only exposed to certain perspectives of the story and not all of them.
The demise of the newspaper is also really affecting the way our democracy works. There are many reasons, one is that the internet, especially blogging lets people share their thoughts online, and it’s free for people to do it. It is also affecting our democracy in the fact that it keeps the information up to date that is being written about. There are also some negatives that will occur if the newspaper industry comes to an end. For example, there are a lot of celebrity, soft news that comes out of the internet and broadcast media. We will always have information on the celebrities of our time. However, will we still know everything that goes on in the white house? Or when a shooting has occurred? The newspaper industry and democracy feed off each other. So, if and when the newspaper industry dies it will be a lot harder to produce powerful consistent news.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Is the newspaper going the way of the paperboy?
Years back, you could hear the calling of “Extra, Extra!” from the street corners, then came the thump on your doorstep in the morning, now you can get the news instantly at any time of the day with a few clicks of the mouse. This change in how people get their news has given way to the decline of printed newspapers.
In the early days, the paperboy sold the newspapers on the street. To get the news you had to go out and purchase it from the street corner. Then the newspaper began to be mass-produced and they introduced a paperboy delivery service. This brought the newspaper to your doorstep. Now with the internet, you can just connect and the world’s news is at your fingertips. Instead of having to wait for the delivery boy, now the news is in your house.
The newspaper industry is not too happy about this transition, but it has opened up many more doors in how we view the news and discuss it. Before the newspaper went online, you had to read the days paper and go out to discuss it with the locals at the diner to get different viewpoints and insights on a topic. Now with the internet you are able to read news stories from contrasting sites, such as the witty Daily Show and the serious CNN to get different sides of the story. Also with many online news stories there are places to have open discussions. This gives you a broader range of insight from people all over the world.
With all these ways to access the news, one really has to be informed. This has created a kind of democracy system with the news. Instead of one journalist writing the story, we now have multiple people commenting on a topic. It has become more of a community. This is better for the citizen that wants to be fully informed, but with the general public being able to write the news, we may run into the problem of being misinformed. It comes down to the individual being proactive and taking charge in being well informed citizens. “There is a strong ethic of objectivity in journalism,” says Potter. Some argue that since amateur writers write much of the news online, they may not have taken the same ethic oaths as journalists have.
It is no doubt that the newspaper will become a thing of the past just like the paperboy. I think we should look at this change as progress, but not to forget the ethics and morals that newspaper journalists wrote by. These ethics made journalists reliable, because if they were not, they would not have a job. Therefore, we must hold online writers up to these morals.
In the early days, the paperboy sold the newspapers on the street. To get the news you had to go out and purchase it from the street corner. Then the newspaper began to be mass-produced and they introduced a paperboy delivery service. This brought the newspaper to your doorstep. Now with the internet, you can just connect and the world’s news is at your fingertips. Instead of having to wait for the delivery boy, now the news is in your house.
The newspaper industry is not too happy about this transition, but it has opened up many more doors in how we view the news and discuss it. Before the newspaper went online, you had to read the days paper and go out to discuss it with the locals at the diner to get different viewpoints and insights on a topic. Now with the internet you are able to read news stories from contrasting sites, such as the witty Daily Show and the serious CNN to get different sides of the story. Also with many online news stories there are places to have open discussions. This gives you a broader range of insight from people all over the world.
With all these ways to access the news, one really has to be informed. This has created a kind of democracy system with the news. Instead of one journalist writing the story, we now have multiple people commenting on a topic. It has become more of a community. This is better for the citizen that wants to be fully informed, but with the general public being able to write the news, we may run into the problem of being misinformed. It comes down to the individual being proactive and taking charge in being well informed citizens. “There is a strong ethic of objectivity in journalism,” says Potter. Some argue that since amateur writers write much of the news online, they may not have taken the same ethic oaths as journalists have.
It is no doubt that the newspaper will become a thing of the past just like the paperboy. I think we should look at this change as progress, but not to forget the ethics and morals that newspaper journalists wrote by. These ethics made journalists reliable, because if they were not, they would not have a job. Therefore, we must hold online writers up to these morals.
Newspaper Demise and Citizen Journalism
The internet has made out lives easier, faster, and cheaper. The internet has affected the way Americans receive their news. Traditional means of news media, like the newspaper, is being used far less because reading news online is usually free, constantly updated, and you can read many perspectives. The New York Times published an article last month stating the U.S. newspaper circulation fell by 10% since last year. This significant fall is the result of the internet and citizen journalism.
Citizen journalism has grown very popular over the years. Citizen journalism basically means anybody from the public can report and analyze new and information. These journalists create blogs and/or post on forums about topics they care about. Readers have the opportunity to interact with the blog by posting comments to express their opinion. In 2006, a PEW Internet study found that 73% off all internet users stay informed by the internet.
There are positive, as well as negative effects citizen journalism has on our democracy. First, blogging has given the ordinary citizen a platform to express themselves and allows anybody to view it. Some blogs act as a watchdog of the mainstream media by fact-checking their sources. As for negatives, most news blogging is not balanced and only shows one perspective. Also, the internet is not available to every citizen, compared to the accessibility of the newspaper or television.
The Demise Of The Newspaper
The demise of the newspaper comes from a lack of readers and advertisements to keep them from going under. This generation flocks more to online sources for their news information daily. while the hard copy newspaper might be failing, Internet news sites are soaring in viewers. There are many reasons why newspapers are failing including:
- Loss of advertisements to websites such as http://www.craigslist.com
- Online news sources who get info quicker to people
- The general loss in interest of newspapers
Newspapers are losing their advertising revenue because they have lost an audience. Advertising in newspapers make less sense now. Unfortunately advertising on the Internet does not make up for the loss of funds that the papers used to get. Employers don't advertise in the newspapers as often either because they have online websites to advertise on and reach a broader audience such as http://www.milwaukeejobs.com or http://www.monsterjobs.com. Because of this loss newspapers are trying new ways to save money and raise money. They are now dumping jobs to save more money. Some papers have also went to only delivering papers a couple of times a week.
Newspapers need to find a new business model because the current model is insufficient to meet the needs of the public. Since people are flocking more to the Internet for news you have journalist trying to navigate the Internet than actually doing their reporting and editing duties. Also you have high paid editors doing things they have no basic idea of doing. Because of this most web staffs for the Internet are understaffed and insufficient. It makes you wonder Who Put These Guys In Charge! http://www.najp.org/articles/2008/02/crisis-what-crisis.html. The way that the newspapers are trying to transfer their work from hard copy to an Internet news sources is very under funded and lacks knowledge.
One major newspaper that has failed has been the Tribune. The Tribune had to file for bankruptcy because of mounting debt and lack of funding from advertisements. Because of this, the company has been trying to sell off its more lucrative sub companies so that they can generate more funds. For more of the ways that The Tribune is trying to recover itself, visit http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/tribune-files-for-bankruptcy/. In official documents the Tribune has said that they are 13 billion dollars in debt. This is a tremendous amount of money. They are trying to save their skins but it is going to take a lot of work to rectify this situation.
The question I ask myself is how the newspaper industry couldn't see all of these issues coming to light sooner than later. Why wasn't it rectified or changed when issues started to arise? Things like this doesn't happen over night. I'm not the most knowledgeable woman in the world but I would know that if I see something declining and not working I would try to change it so that I wouldn't suffer in the end. Now the newspapers are scrambling trying to find new ways to do things and they are still failing. I never read newspapers so that tells you how much people really read them. I believe that hardly anybody of my generation reads them at all. Newspapers need to find a new way to do things and quickly.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A New Era in News
The Internet has revolutionized just about everything. We communicate, view time, gather information, and even meet people differently because of it. In many ways it has made getting the news more democratic and convenient. Internet news sites are often free and advertising is cheap. People can leave their comments at the end of the article and search the archives to find the topics they want to know about. And access to foreign news sources, like France's Le Monde (one of my favorites), is much easier. And many of these foreign news sites also have English-language versions. In addition to wider access, Internet news has also made print news obsolete in that it is very timely with its ability to be updated at any time during the day.
Discourse, which is encouraged on articles that you can comment on, is central to having a good democracy. People can potentially get more sides to a story by using a variety of online sources. So Internet news must be inherently better than that old-fashioned newspaper, right? Well, nothing is perfect once people get involved. It's just as easy to get one side of a story as it is to get more than one on the Internet because of all the slanted news sources. The immediacy associated with Internet news makes it less credible and less accurate because they rush to update their sites rather than wait until everything is released or confirmed. This all has a negative impact on democracy because they just create a wealth of misinformation.
Not only can the information be detrimental to democracy, but the Internet itself is creating a rift between socio-economic classes. Yes the free online material is very democratic. But the technology needed to get at this material is far from free. Computers and subscriptions to Internet providers are more of an investment than regular print newspapers. This leaves many uninformed.
The newspaper has been important to democracy, and used to be more important in American culture. It was the main way of being an informed citizen. But times are changing. According to USA Today, newspaper circulation worldwide has risen, yet declined in the US. This is nothing to be concerned about. If print news is dying, we need to use the alternative technologies to fill the information gap. This trend only means the end of our democracy, or at least hard times ahead, if people are apathetic to what is happening in the world.
Discourse, which is encouraged on articles that you can comment on, is central to having a good democracy. People can potentially get more sides to a story by using a variety of online sources. So Internet news must be inherently better than that old-fashioned newspaper, right? Well, nothing is perfect once people get involved. It's just as easy to get one side of a story as it is to get more than one on the Internet because of all the slanted news sources. The immediacy associated with Internet news makes it less credible and less accurate because they rush to update their sites rather than wait until everything is released or confirmed. This all has a negative impact on democracy because they just create a wealth of misinformation.
Not only can the information be detrimental to democracy, but the Internet itself is creating a rift between socio-economic classes. Yes the free online material is very democratic. But the technology needed to get at this material is far from free. Computers and subscriptions to Internet providers are more of an investment than regular print newspapers. This leaves many uninformed.
The newspaper has been important to democracy, and used to be more important in American culture. It was the main way of being an informed citizen. But times are changing. According to USA Today, newspaper circulation worldwide has risen, yet declined in the US. This is nothing to be concerned about. If print news is dying, we need to use the alternative technologies to fill the information gap. This trend only means the end of our democracy, or at least hard times ahead, if people are apathetic to what is happening in the world.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Death of Printed News
Printed news' days are numbered. Once a lucrative business, newspapers are suffering from rapidly declining revenues from both unit sales and sales of advertising space. It's a generally accepted fact that citizens now read most of their news online and that this is the cause of the decline of printed media. This holds especially true with young people like me, who grew up alongside the internet.
As a young media consumer, I personally view newspapers as an outdated form of keeping up with the news. A self-described "old grouch" like Mortart may lament the decline of printed news in his blog Octogenarian (which implies through it's name alone that the man is at least 80), but his views do not seem to be shared by the younger generation. Newspapers may not have been all that expensive in the first place, but compared with free and convenient online news, papers just can't compete.
If you were to create a list of pros and cons weighing printed news against digital news, the list would overwhelmingly support digital news. Digital news can be conveniently located right on your computer, with important outlets like The New York Times and the BBC providing free and easy access to breaking news stories. These stories can be supported not only with photographs, but also with audio and video files, both of which are impossible to feature in a printed publication. For example, if you read an album review on a music media website like Pitchfork, you can instantly get a free listen-through of the album due to there partnership with lala.com, as shown in this album review. Not only that, but multiple sources can be quickly cross-referenced for accuracy without having to go to the closest news stand to purchase more papers. Internet articles also promote the democratic process since they allow users to post comments and discuss the topics at hand right there on the web page. This promotes citizen participation in the news and allows readers to expand their knowledge of topics beyond what is just written in an article. Journalism is not a one way street of communication (medium-to-viewer) anymore, but rather an interconnected web that everybody is involved with to varying degress.
This whole state of affairs seems to have printed press companies in a fit, predicting that this is the end for their companies since this trend shows no sign of stopping. With craigslist making classified sections obsolete and ad revenues falling, this is not terribly surprising. However, rather than acting like the worlds going to end and going through all sorts of desperate measures to get people to pick up the paper, they should really be focused on moving forward. One of these companies needs to take the initiative and establish a good business model for internet news. As Bob Dylan once sang "The times they are'a changin'" and they sure as heck won't change back. It's clear where the public demands its news, it seems futile, not to mention unprofitable, to try and fight that.
As a young media consumer, I personally view newspapers as an outdated form of keeping up with the news. A self-described "old grouch" like Mortart may lament the decline of printed news in his blog Octogenarian (which implies through it's name alone that the man is at least 80), but his views do not seem to be shared by the younger generation. Newspapers may not have been all that expensive in the first place, but compared with free and convenient online news, papers just can't compete.
If you were to create a list of pros and cons weighing printed news against digital news, the list would overwhelmingly support digital news. Digital news can be conveniently located right on your computer, with important outlets like The New York Times and the BBC providing free and easy access to breaking news stories. These stories can be supported not only with photographs, but also with audio and video files, both of which are impossible to feature in a printed publication. For example, if you read an album review on a music media website like Pitchfork, you can instantly get a free listen-through of the album due to there partnership with lala.com, as shown in this album review. Not only that, but multiple sources can be quickly cross-referenced for accuracy without having to go to the closest news stand to purchase more papers. Internet articles also promote the democratic process since they allow users to post comments and discuss the topics at hand right there on the web page. This promotes citizen participation in the news and allows readers to expand their knowledge of topics beyond what is just written in an article. Journalism is not a one way street of communication (medium-to-viewer) anymore, but rather an interconnected web that everybody is involved with to varying degress.
This whole state of affairs seems to have printed press companies in a fit, predicting that this is the end for their companies since this trend shows no sign of stopping. With craigslist making classified sections obsolete and ad revenues falling, this is not terribly surprising. However, rather than acting like the worlds going to end and going through all sorts of desperate measures to get people to pick up the paper, they should really be focused on moving forward. One of these companies needs to take the initiative and establish a good business model for internet news. As Bob Dylan once sang "The times they are'a changin'" and they sure as heck won't change back. It's clear where the public demands its news, it seems futile, not to mention unprofitable, to try and fight that.
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