After reading several different articles about the demise of democracy through newspapers, I started to realize that this is a huge topic. I do strongly believe that newspapers greatly affect democracy and how well it functions. Without newspapers, how will stories get dug up? I feel that newspapers have always delivered the news first. This news has been discovered, researched, and, in some cases, pried from individuals by journalists. Journalists have always been in search of the truth and getting information to the public. Without journalists getting paid to do this, who will?
Without the job of the journalist, who’s going to make sure to be at every city council meeting or any other important meeting that has the power to issue change within a community? How will news be found or discovered? News on television and radio usually is found first in newspapers so where will these other sources for news get their information? Newspapers and the jobs that they provide are vital for United States Citizens to stay in touch with what’s going on in their communities and the nation. Even if news is still offered on the internet, not everyone uses or has access to the internet to get informed. This goes especially for the older population who weren’t raised with this type of technology.
Also, there has been talk that if newspapers were to stay in existence, both the daily and weekly newspapers would be written and distributed by one media conglomerate. If this were to occur, I believe that news would be incredibly skewed and it would be much easier to control the content presented within the paper. If one company were to have complete control of newspapers, I feel that the information would be more of a bias than fair and it would corrupt our whole society. By having different newspapers, it allows for more variety in stories and, in some cases, offers more or less information than their competitors. The existence of newspapers is essential for a democracy to run properly and without newspapers whose to say we’ll even be living in a democratic society anymore?
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090405/OPINION03/904050323/0/OPINION01
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080616/mcchesney
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ReplyDeleteYou have some good points here, but I have to disagree on newspapers delivering the news first. Yes, newspapers do present the news in the best and most professional fashion, but with today’s capabilities the morning-after-update isn’t always the best. Internet, cellular phones, and many other modes of technology offer by-the-minute updates on stories. Newspapers, though, have to wait until their next edition to report on them. Stovall explains on page 78 of Writing for The Mass Media how “timeliness” is extremely important to news stories, and this is something that newspapers are losing. Even on the subject of politics, the internet will have an updated story on voting results and addresses minutes after they are completed.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your statement about newspapers providing jobs. Thousands of positions from editors to delivery-people would be lost without the newspaper. Even the paper industry, which provides thousands of jobs to America itself, would take a massive hit. In addition to these economical hits, as people cancel subscriptions and turn to the internet, newspapers lose the funding that enables them to dig up high-class stories. This, in-turn, hurts the quality of the story and turns more readers away.
I don’t really agree that all newspapers would eventually be taken over by one. In this down economy all newspapers are taking a hit, leaving no organization untouched. I do agree, though, if one company were to take over, there would be much bias in the news. When newspapers originally came out, they were owned by political parties, which obviously slanted stories to make the owner-party look better than the other. If this were to happen, we would obviously see history repeat itself, creating immense bias in the stories.
http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/