Is it a sign of our troubled times, or are newspapers just not offering enough to their readers? While dozens of newspapers, like the Ann Arbor News, are closing down shop, many are turning to online formats.
It amazes me, that the majority of those I've talked to about this, do not care.
There are few things in America that are as important to our citizens, as the newspaper. I hope the role papers have played in our society transfers over to the online medium, but I can not help feeling as if we are losing something important here.
This situation is grim. Thousands have lost their jobs. These aren't the numerous and nameless that I've been reading about in the auto industry. I never had dreams of growing up to work on a Detroit line pumping out Chevy's. These are print journalist. They no longer have jobs, or anyone willing to employ them. They were joe-shmoes, looking for a crack at the big times. I've changed my major three times. Lucky me- I decided to place my faith in an unshakable industry: Print Journalism.
These newspapers that are shutting down, are not just the po'dunk-town gazettes. Papers like the Seattle Post, and the Ann Arbor News have been around for almost two hundred years.
I can appreciate the numerous trees that will be conserved, without pulp newspapers. However, you should know by now, that we as humans, will find a way to squander those remaining trees on something else. Hell, after China buys all our debt following our "stimulus" loans, we will probably need the trees as some sort of bargaining chip. We won't have anything else to barter with- except for the mass of previously-owned camry's we could try to sell back to them.
Some papers are printing editions only a couple days a week, while most are switching entirely to the net. Once reliant on their advertisements and classified space, newspapers are feeling the Craigslist-crunch. Most local papers can not compete with the loss of the local ads, and it is a shame.
It is only a matter of time, before everything is caught in the "net," and the immediacy in which our news is provided will be old-hat. I would like very much to live long enough to see our country through the horror, that is reality television. However, I would like, even more, to see what will follow the Internet, when we grow tired of it boundless expanses.
Before this assignment, if you would have asked me about newspapers turning to the internet, I probably would have told I didn't really care either. When I sat down thinking of what to write, I saw no negatives at first to newspapers being converted completely online. After I finished writing my blog and reading everyone else's, my view has definitely changed, especially after reading yours.
ReplyDeleteI still think that we are an ever changing society that will always be questioning and curious as to what we can accomplish next that is bigger and better than the last thing. But, newspapers truly hold a sense of history that a website can't.
It's interesting that you have changed your mind over your major and ended up deciding on print journalism. I too want to major in journalism, but can't help but feel uneasy with what seems to be an ever shirking job market, but oddly an increasingly popular field.
The positive of saving trees and the negative of losing jobs that you mentioned really made me think- if we give up print newspapers we will be doing a good thing by conserving our resources, but on the other hand, if we give them up, we will lose thousands of jobs and possibly a tradition that we can never get back. So in that case, which one do we want more? Keeping a tradition alive or saving our resources? It seems like which ever way we go eventually, we lose out on something important.