After listening to Arielle Emmett's presentation yesterday I started wondering what role, if any newspapers will play in the future. I don't think they will exist. It seems like so many times I hear journalists talk about the future of media they seem like a bunch of suits running scared of an obvious regime change.
Emmett mentioned that losing newspapers could be a threat to our very democracy. I highly doubt it. Isn't blogging the most democratic form of news? I think the news media has to resign themeselves with the fact that they can't compete with some kid with a camera phone. Plus, they need to recognize that good writing can come from anywhere and not all of these staff writers are publishing anything worth reading.
3 comments:
Newspapers and media in general is run by advertisers. The kid with a camera phone is run by no one but his own convictions. Newspapers, most definitely, will be gone soon enough. The media at large won't be far behind it unless they find a way to truly be "fair and balanced." The tag line of Fox News, which is more of a punch line than an actual slogan. Even when looking outside of their "opinion shows" their "real" news anchors are as biased as O'Reilly. So many people don't trust where there news is coming from anymore. Today's youth relies on Stewart and Colbert because, while it may not be the most accurate, it is scathingly honest and entertaining as hell.
HOWEVER, advertising does create revenue allowing for "professional" journalists go places the kid with the camera phone can't go. Granted this news will be biased as the reporters and the outlet are beholden to the advertiser, but what news won't be biased? It just isn't commercial interest that biases people.
Also fox news is the devil
In my opinion newspapers might disappear in the developed world but not at all in less developed countries. It is in this kind of debate that I realize how sides of the world have different concerns. In many less fortunate countries, publishers are facing issues such as literacy rate etc.
No concern is more important than the other but they show how different people are striving to fill their own gap. It is a complicated issue. In the era of technology there is of course the risk that journalism is shifting and that is not bad per see. As Garrett mentioned the Kid might go places that a foreign entity can't access. The question will now remain as if the source is acceptable. It is kind of a circular problem related to so many questions: What, how, how much, when etc.
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