Newspapers Are Going To Kinda Sorta Die!

Newspapers are going to be a thing of the past sooner rather than later. The Internet is the future of journalism not newspapers. My generation and the generations to come do not read newspapers. They are going to go extinct and people need to realize that the apocalypse for news papers is coming. Ok so, maybe it won’t be an apocalypse, but there will be an end.

I’ve read articles like Eric Altermen’s Out of Print before, and they all say the same thing. Newspapers need to realize that people are moving into the digital age and they need to adapt. The article states that young people get the majority of their political news from the Internet, which is true. People my age don’t read newspapers. I don’t remember the last time I sat down and read a newspaper. Even in my Reporting 1 class, my professor asks us what was on the cover of the Dallas Morning News. I never have a clue, but I can tell her what the top story was on MSNBC.com. I don’t hate newspapers, but the Internet news sites have so much more to offer. They have the story, accompanied by more than one picture, and sometimes a video to go along with it. Most importantly, the internet is up to date. Sites like MSNBC.com, CNN.com, and that god-awful Dallasnews.com are updated regularly. Newspapers can’t do that.

However, I did find it interesting that the Huffington Post, would put there blog posts on the site without reviewing them first. Apparently they only take a post down if it is considered to be false, defamatory, or offensive. Only then will the editor get involved. I thought that was kind of cool. It gives the writers a little more freedom. Unlike newspapers where the article has to be approved by an editor before the public can see it.

Walter Lippmann came to an interesting came to many conclusions about the so called “public,” but one of them really stood out to me. Lippmann said a public “is slow to be aroused quickly and diverted . . . and is interested only when events have been melodramatized as a conflict.” I could not agree more with this statement. Today’s “infotainment” news does exactly what Lippmann said. They make almost everything seem melodramatic. Local news is really bad about this. If it’s not some kind of conflict then it’s not considered news. They follow the saying “if it bleeds it leads” a little too close. I get it the world is dangerous. Now can we go to a story that doesn’t involve some domestic dispute, suicide, or shooting? Although I agree with Lippmann on this one topic, I’m no elitist! But I could talk forever about my issues with elitists but that’s another blog.

Now back to the issue about newspapers and their eventual demise.

Another point that I found interesting was how the advertisers were walking away from newspapers and putting their ads in newspapers. Did newspapers really not see this coming? It’s a lot cheaper to and more convenient to put ads on an internet site than in a newspaper. I think that newspapers really need to get their act together and adapt to the new digital community. The clock is ticking!

It’s not the end of the world for them. There’s always the option of convergence. Arianna Huffington thinks it’s a good idea since that’s where most of the advertisers are going anyways. I say follow the money, but that’s just me.

I honestly don’t think that the future of journalism is in that mush trouble. However, I do think the future of newspapers isn’t very bright; in fact it’s looking pretty grim. But it’s not the end of the world, because they will eventually move to the Internet. It’s just a matter of how fast they convert to the Internet. The transition phase might be a little rough for some, but I think in the end everything will probably work out. I mean writers will always be needed, there just might not be as many in the future.