Goodbye, Newspapers

In past months, the internet has been in an absolute buzz about the fact that newspapers are on their way to extinction because people would rather obtain their news and information online. (Irony, anyone?) The arguments for the preservation of newspapers tend to vary in their angles: Some folks believe that newspapers are too important culturally to be tossed aside in favor of the internet, and some believe that newspapers are downright crucial for the preservation of our civic culture and democracy.

In this Slate article, Jack Shafer writes against the notion that newspapers are the cornerstone of a working democratic system. Shafer explains that people will obtain their news with or without newspapers, writing "I can imagine citizens acquiring sufficient information to vote or poke their legislators with pitchforks even if all the newspapers in the country fell into a bottomless recycling bin tomorrow."

Honestly, I was completely unfamiliar with the sheer adoration with which people viewed newspapers. Newspapers are really simply a mode of delivery for the news; the newspaper itself is of little significance. But people have this intense sentimentality for newspapers - like when Denver's Rocky Mountain News announced its last issue after 150 years in print and ordinary citizens made heartfelt tribute videos. (Like this one.) (And this candlelit vigil.) (And this one, because he's on the toilet. Get it? That's where you read a newspaper!)

Why the tears and heartache over the loss of some paper? (Newspapers are also the least eco-friendly method of delivering news. Just sayin', mainstream media.) Some believe that without newspapers the news simply won't survive, which is the equivalent of saying that modern communication exists because we all never stopped drawing stick figures on caves. (To be fair to Salon, they make a decent argument that amateur and niche blogs will create an atmosphere where people will be so inundated with information that it will be hard to decipher what is substantial news.) (But on the other hand, aren't those the people who already opt for US Weekly rather than The New York Times?)

In closing, perhaps the internet does allow for too many crackpot and false news stories that are written as truth, which in turn leads citizens to believe in things like American concentration camps are being built by FEMA to imprison political dissenters. And of course we need organized mainstream media to act as an authority that maintains order and debunks these silly citizen-perpetuated pseudo news stories, right?

Oh, wait. Nevermind.