Sunday, April 12, 2009

Krysta Hill said...

The demise of newspapers in today’s society doesn’t seem like such a big deal. I don’t remember the last time I went out to buy myself a newspaper. Everyone I know reads online in some way, shape or form. On a computer, iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry, Kindle, there are other ways to spread the news other than through newspaper.
Why wait until tomorrow to read what you can read right now? Especially when the story in tomorrow's paper will be outdated by the time it hits your doorstep. With technology today, our generation would rather search the internet, instead of flip through pages in a newspaper, for new stories whether it’s on democracy and political ideals or for entertainment purposes.
Besides being able to search the internet, which is faster and more efficient anyways, having less newspapers to publish can save a lot of paper. No matter how many recycling bins we have in this country there are still plenty of newspapers that get disposed of improperly. With the green movement becoming so popular, saving the earth and paper, this should be a good thing for the environment.
I think people are so scared of change they cant see how this can actually help our society.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 12, 2009 at 9:47 AM

    In Response to Krysta Hill's Post:

    Krysta, I agree with what you wrote. If you are going to look at the online news phenomenon, young people and college students certainly do obtain most of their news from hand held devices. And while I strongly support the movement towards the complete "digitalization" of the news, I do see a few faults with specific points within your argument.

    You cited devices such as the iPhone as a method of reading news. Any pro-newspaper person is going to immediately argue that these devices, when compared to a two dollar newspaper, are extremely expensive. To say that we need to make the internet more accessible in order to accommodate the movement towards online news is one thing, but it is something different altogether to imply that we should all have iPhones. This sort of argument makes a strong case for the pro-newspaper people, who often rely on cost and accessibility in their arguments.

    However, I think that you made a very good point when you cited the "green" movement as a reason to abandon newspapers. It is unrealistic to say that all newspapers in this country are recycled, which is an argument I often hear made by the pro-newspaper folks. The mainstream media often promotes the "going green" trend, but yet these are often the same people who champion the newspaper as a source of news. Their hypocrisy is tangible in the form of city streets that are littered with discarded newspapers.

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  2. erin salmonApril 15, 2009 at 9:20 AM

    I agree with what you wrote about thinking the newspaper decline is not that big of deal. I think it is important for people to continue reading about news stories, but I think it is a more efficient to read about stories on updated News sites and online papers. Our generation is all about immediate response and the Internet is a big source that allows us to continue on with this demand. I agree with you when you said, “Why wait for tomorrow to read what you can read right now?” When a news story happens later in the evening, it is unrealistic to think that people are going to wait for the morning paper to find out details about the story. People are going to go to the internet, spend five minutes searching for the story and then engage in the article with a few clicks.

    I also agree with you when you talk about the importance of moving towards the “think green” action. With newspapers no longer being the most efficient way to inform the public, pages and pages of daily newspapers printed everyday is seen more as a paper waste. Although most newspaper employees would not be happy to hear, but the decline of paper printing has already contributed to the environment with less recycling and garbage consumption. Most people read the paper once and never look at it again, so why waste the paper for someone to read a story once when you can go online and get the same information without having to waste any paper. I think the decrease in the everyday paper printing will help us move towards being green and help the environment we live in last a little longer.

    Finally, you talked about how most people can access the internet through IPhones, ITouch, or Blackberry’s, and I think that is true but still today the majority of people do not own any of these advanced technology devices. But I don’t think that rules out the easy access to the internet for news information. There are public and university libraries all over the United States and in almost every library there are computers with internet access for public use. Using sources like public library’s is a equal way for people of all incomes to be able to engage in the internet and benefit from its information it can provide to you. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is important for people to hear news story’s from multiple sources including broadcasts, internet articles and also newspapers. I just don’t think people are relying as much on the paper source due to it being the least up-to-date and the least exciting format to engage in.

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