Death of the Newspaper: Where Will Journalism Go From Here?

1343 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reasons for the decline of newspapers

The U.S. newspaper industry is in a time of transition. Ad revenue profits and print readership have been steadily declining for years and things are only continuing to get worse. As readers slowly gravitate towards the internet to fulfill their news needs, more and more newspapers are being forced to close their doors. In spite of this, the spirit of journalism cannot be allowed to die. Media expert Clay Shirky (2009, para. 10) writes that, “There is no general model for newspapers to replace the one the internet just broke.” Shirky’s right, there is no general model because it’s no longer about replacing newspapers; it’s about saving journalism and giving journalists a new media in which to thrive.

In an age where young people have been steadily gravitating away from newspapers as a source for news, many would argue that the death of newspapers is not important. However, many other industries are also being indirectly impacted by the declining news industry. The hard work of print journalists is being utilized daily by not only radio and television stations but also by bloggers, politicians and social commentators. The newspaper industry has continuously benefitted society in a way that no other industry has and it has done so quietly from the background.

Typically, newspapers have far more resources than radio and television stations. For instance, the Dallas Morning News, has more reporters in the city of Dallas than ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox television affiliates combined (Kirchhoff, 2010, p. 10). A newspaper’s larger staff allows it to cover every event, big or small from every angle. Eventually, when the majority of newspapers die out, radio and television stations will have to scramble to provide news coverage with thei...

... middle of paper ...

...wined; the spirit of journalism will be allowed to thrive. Although there is currently not a concrete system in place, there rarely is during revolutions, the next big thing is only around the corner. This is not the end for journalism, it’s only the beginning.

Works Cited

Fine, J. (September 25, 2008). What will replace big-city newspapers?. Bloomberg Buisnessweek, Retrieved from http://www.buisnessweek.com/magazine/content/08_40/b4102077743556.htm

Kirchhoff, S. M. (September 9, 2010). The U.S. newspaper industry in transition. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40700.pdf

More media, less news. (August 24, 2006). The Economist, Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/7827135

Shirky, C. (March 2009). Newspapers and thinking the unthinkable. Retrieved from http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/

Show More
Related

  • Partisan Journalism, A History of Media Bias in the United States, Jim A. Kuypers

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... of that were true then the growth of the occurring is an argument of the American newspaper dealing with the most severe dispute ever before. The internet is slowly taking away from the traditional sources of advertising revenue, making the newspapers go out of business, people are getting laid-off and other try to make sense of it all trying to figure out how the newspapers can survive the digital age. Now, on the other hand some newspapers have made to most out the revolution of the twentieth century.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Page One: Inside The New York Times

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    I say this because there were points in which I personally could not really understand what was going on due to my lack of exposure to this problem that American journalism is facing. More specifically, terminology that was used, especially from business standpoints, and the different companies that were involved made it harder to keep up with the issue at hand. However, with a little editing and better explanation of terminology, I think that this film could extend to a wide audience that would include both digital natives and digital immigrants that are experiencing this transition within American news reporting. This paper will examine the difference between old and new journalism and its new standards, “The New York Times Effect” and its 21st century challenges, important qualifications to be a successful journalist, and the future role of journalism within American society.

    Read More

  • Is Voting For Young People By Martin P. Wattenberg

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    One of the first connections Wattenberg makes is raising the issue of whether or not newspapers are a dying habit when looking, not only at the adolescents of America, but as the country as a whole. Overall, he states that the number of people who consistently read a newspaper on a daily basis has remained on a steady decline as the years go by. Wattenberg brings up the topic that earlier on in history the newspaper was the means of information for people all across America, and it was filled with political news to keep the citizens informed. However, in today 's society not only has technology taken over this old time habit, the new

    Read More

  • Democracy In Australia Essay

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Newspapers in Australia have never been sustainable in their own right. Once newspapers were two businesses, the sale of news and the sale of advertising (Simons 2011). However, in the modern media environment classified ads no longer come hot off the press on a Saturday morning combined with the daily news. Classified ads are now online, available anytime, and the companies selling the advertising often have nothing to do with news reporting. Media organisations therefore are suffering from variations of the collapse of the pre Internet business model but, because of its dependence on classifieds, Fairfax has had a faster decline than most other Australian newspapers (Simons 2011). Advertising online is cheap, and in the web-based world Fairfax does not have a monopoly or a premium position to gain from Internet based news delivery. The mistakes made in the transition to a digital business and the failure to diversify brought Fairfax to its knees,

    Read More

  • By George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, And Robert L. Lineberry

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Reporting the News” by George C. Edwards III, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry, the main idea is how the media determines what to air, where to get said stories that will air, how the media presents the news, and the medias effect on the general public. “Reporting The News” is a very strong and detailed article. The authors’ purpose is to inform the readers of what goes on in the news media. This can be inferred by the authors’ tone. The authors’ overall tone is critical of the topics that are covered. The tone can be determined by the authors’ strong use of transitions, specific examples, and phrases or words that indicate analysis. To summarize, first, the authors’ indicate that the media chooses its stories that will air

    Read More

  • Words Triumph Over Images Summary

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his editorial "Words Triumph Over Images," Curtis Wilkie blames today’s media for being “reckless” and “a mutant reality show”. He believes that television and radio are “unfiltered”, which causes the quality of journalism for newspapers to be unmatched. Yet, it is unfair to label all media that is not print as lesser because the quality of any media relies on the viewers and the individual journalists, and in drastic situations like a hurricane, reporters may have many road blocks. Any of these aspects can affect the quality of journalism, which invalidates Curtis Wilkie’s claim.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Pulitzer And Joseph Hearst

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Prime Minister of Spain once told an American, “The newspapers in your country seem to be more powerful than the government.” This statement was never more true than in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. The rulers of the New York newspaper empire, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, battled against one another in the ultimate test of journalism. With a real war on the horizon, these men fought to produce the most sensational stories Americans had ever read; and, as a result, they brought forth a new age in the American newspaper business, an age of fighting for the little guy, and beating back tyranny one paper at a time.

    Read More

  • Objectivity in Journalism

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Public journalism has changed much during its existence. Papers are striving to actively involve readers in the news development. It goes beyond telling the news to embrace a broader mission of improving the quality of public life. The American style of journalism is based on objectivity and separates us from the bias found in most European partisan papers. American journalism is becoming too vigilant in being objective that the dedication to investigating stories tends to be missing in the writing. Public journalism works to incorporate concepts from partisan and objective writing to increase the flow of information and improve the quality of public life.

    Read More

  • Traditional Journalism Essay

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first is the crisis of viability. The chance of success in the journalism in the mainstream is approaching a decline due to the transformations in technologies and new access to multiple sources of information. The second is a crisis in civic adequacy. The contributions of journalism to citizenship and democracy have begun to shift and this shift has caused a question of the relevancy of journalism to democratic processes. In a democratic society journalism plays the role of the government watchdog. The effectiveness of society’s watchdog is now being challenged and in turn alternating the structure of the current democratic society. Many critical theorists of the press during the beginning of the 20th century were concerned with finding appropriate forms of public regulation of the press and journalism to ensure that journalists are writing “news and information about public affairs which sustains and nurtures citizen information, understanding and engagement and thereby a democratic polity” (Cushion and Franklin, 2015: 75) (Dahlgren, Splichal 2016). Journalism is a political entity that influences and informs the public. It is meant to work as a source of public information that helps and does not hinder the general public specifically in political processes. The article

    Read More

  • The Future of Journalism

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although the future of newspapers and print media is very gloomy right now I think that once the newspapers that were revered and respected in their heyday develop a model that can incorporate and transition traditional news along with current web and online media at a reasonable rate and with the high quality that we have been known to expect I think that newspapers will make a surprising comeback and will be once again at the head to the public sphere and will be viable and thriving online entities.

    Read More

  • Print Media vs Digital Media

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paul Grabowicz. "The Transition to Digital Journalism." Print and Broadcast News and the Internet. N.p., 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Journalism and Social Media

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Journalists and Social Media | The Changing Newsroom." The Changing Newsroom | New Media. Enduring Values. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .

    Read More

  • The Decline of Print News

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    The newspaper industry presaged its decline after the introduction of the television and televised broadcasting in the 1950s and then after the emergence of the internet to the public in the 1990s and the 21st century with its myriad of media choices for people. Since then the readership of printed media has declined whilst digital numbers continue to climb. This is mostly due to television and the internet being able to offer immediate information to viewers and breaking news stories, in a more visually stimulating way with sound, moving images and video. Newspapers are confined to paper and ink and are not considered as ‘alive’ as these other mediums.

    Read More

  • The Impact of The Internet on Journalism

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    The impact of the internet on journalism is one area that continues to attract the attention of media scholars. The technology has brought forth a set of opportunities and challenges for conventional media (Garrison, 1996). The last ten years have seen a lot of inventions which have greatly altered the way people access and consume news. Audiences have also “developed more sophisticated and specific demands and tastes for news delivery, thanks in part to the explosion of social media and mobile technology.” (Kolodzy 2013)

    Read More

  • Is Journalism a Profession?

    2831 Words  | 6 Pages

    McLoed and Hawley (as cited in Wilson, 1995) elucidated appropriately, "a recurrent journalistic controversy has involved the question whether journalism is a true profession or merely a craft." Sparked primarily by Lippmann and Dewey, extending into the age of the penny press (mid 1980s) and later, the attempt to commercialise the news (late 1980s) to our present era, there has existed a contentious debate on journalism being distinguished as a profession (Wilson, 1995). Encapsulated in a democratic homeland since the advent of time, media systems are habitually acclaimed as the “fourth power,” with its journalists often hailed as the “watch-dogs” of such a society. Lending itself to act as ‘gatekeeper’ for the wider society and performing the traditional role of journalism, the media (overall) exist as powerful “instruments of knowledge” that perform the function of providing information to the masses in a public sphere, where issues may be discussed, justified and contested (Scannell, 1995, p. 17). Evidently, media workers play a pivotal role in our society; however, their status in the realm of professions is not definite.

    Read More

More about Death of the Newspaper: Where Will Journalism Go From Here?

Open Document