RSS
Home
Journalism's journey from news page to webpage
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
The Huffington Post is a good example of quality online news and opinion.
Today's media, especially newspapers and magazines, often fill pages with articles lamenting the loss of "traditional journalism," whatever that means. To the authors of these pieces, it usually means the shrinking sales of media using the printed page. These writers mourn the passing of the "good old days" when paperboys filled a multitude of bags with product every morning and tossed their wares on almost every porch in town. Yes, that was the Golden Age when almost everyone read now defunct mass-market magazines like Life and Look, in addition to their local newspapers. Nowadays, when even America's prestige news voices, like The New York Times, perche on the edge of bankruptcy, reading paper pages is at an all-time low. According to these folks, such change can mean only one thing: an apocalypse in the world of journalism.
Such narratives remind me of my younger years, especially during the '60s, when my older relatives used to muse on better times of long ago, when men were men and women were ... well you know the drill. In these tales, the past lives on in golden-hued glory while present events fall into rot and ruin. My response to dire predictions of the death of journalism is simple. Yes, Virginia, there is a future for journalism. However, to survive, journalists must learn to change their concept of what a news medium is, from inked page to "e-page."
Newspapers and magazines are not passing away. Instead, they're slowly passing into the Internet. Many newspapers, including The New York Times, have webpage twins (for better or worse). In addition, the web is spawning hundreds of paper and magazine style "e-publications" uniquely online. Of these, many are just headline lists, while more are so awful they would make Joseph Pulitzer spin ballistically in his tomb. However, the marketplace of ideas is winnowing the weeds from the wheat. Reliable, journalistically professional, and quality web publications are there for the finding, both clones of the old and electronic creations. The Huffington Post is one example of many quality online sources of journalistic excellence out there for the average person to read and enjoy. Just go to your favorite Internet search engine and look around for a while. If you're too lazy to use your time combing the web for a different news outlet, simply subscribe to one or more of your favorite existing newspapers via its Internet "twin," provided of course there is one.
The main reason many hardcopy publications are dying has nothing to do with trends in journalism per se. Reporting, editorializing, feature writing, and the like are still the same as always and in as much demand as ever. The failure lies with the big news and magazine publishing companies, much like the manufacturer General Motors, which have failed to keep up with current trends. People's reading habits are shifting to perusing the computer not the printed page. In spite of this revolution, most publications have clung to their old, hardcopy business model instead of moving to the Internet along with most other information outlets. Many of the newspapers and magazines that have websites just put out drips and drops of their publications online. They consider their printed product to be "real journalism." Yet, the profession is as alive and vibrant online as it has been anywhere else. Just ask anyone who owns, edits, or writes an Internet publication. What is dying is the old printed-page concept. Of course, there will always be paper print media of some kind out there. But the bulk of readership, money, and interest have gone from black ink to web link.
So my advice to readers and journalists alike is the same. News, analysis, and information proliferate daily, from headlines-only stuff and gossip trash, to in-depth quality reporting and editorials, as well as everything in between. Are you just out of J-school and want to start a career in journalism with a future? Have you been guilty, as a pro already working in the field, of complaining about the state of journalism today? All of you, go check out the Internet. True, there's lots of trash online (just like in news stands), but you can find quality as well (again, like in news stands). Old newspapers aren't dying, they're just fading away into the blogosphere. So you can rest easy and breathe a sigh of relief, and BTW, so can many hundreds of trees every day.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
