Is it really a surprise that newspaper sales are declining? As technology advances the economy weakens. Sure we want to be educated citizens seeking the truth from the media, but who wants to work for it? People are busy. They are either going to school, working multiple jobs and or have kids. We can check the weather, listen to music, watch movies, and go shopping online right from our phones. Do you really expect me to find time to sit down and read something other than a text book? I don’t think so. I’d much rather watch Count Down with Keith Olberman, The Daily show with John Stewart, or The Colbert report. At least then, I am entertained while learning and feeling somewhat productive.
We live in a fast paced society. Everyone is on the go. We eat in our cars and can get prescription medication from the drive through. Amazon.com has a “Kindle.” It’s a digital storage device that can down load digital books. It’s designed for people on the go. Readers can choose from over 260,000 books…”All available in under 60 seconds.” The device can even read to you. With convenience like this news papers may be in more trouble than we know. Not to mention that news papers are huh…made of paper which is not exactly green. Digital may be the way to go. If apple could come up with a digital device capable of receiving downloadable updates, we could save trees and avoid tossing out of date “kindles” into the trash. I would definitely buy one!
I agree with the rest of you. For the sake of tradition, our future careers and job stability, I truly hope news papers find a way to boost revenue. My only fear is that news papers will be flooded with advertisements and propaganda in an effort to make money just to stay afloat. If news papers operate on the same justification magazines use to show women scantily dressed and half emaciated --we are all in trouble. At that point will news papers really depict the news or will they be designed for entertainment purposes?
Call me a pessimist or a glass half empty kind of gal, but unless you can give me a news paper supersized and to go…I don’t see myself reading it until I’m 65 and retired. Then again with our economy and social security…I may be working until I’m 80.
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I totally agree with you, Tanisha. You're not a pessimist, just realistic! People just do not have the time anymore to flip through a large newspaper to try and find the article they want to read. It is so much easier to go to a website like cnn.com or msnbc.com and quickly read the headlines on the side to figure out exactly what we want to become informed on.
ReplyDeleteDuring our lecture on the internet, Professor Schuster talked about the microformat of a website. This includes the labels, headlines, summaries, subheads, cutlines, and introductions. Any website is carefully designed to catch the reader's eye, starting with the newest readers who have not been to the website before. Every website wants the reader to come back, and to get that, they have to make their website eye-catching. I find that cnn.com and msnbc.com make it so easy to see the latest news stories, and if there is a breaking news story, it's usually in enormous red letters at the top of the screen. It is really hard for a newspaper to top that!
Lets not all sit and point fingers at the Newspaper Industry." We as consumers are as much to blame for taking something for nothing as they are for giving it away.
ReplyDeleteLets also not forget who's complaining: local paper based distributer's are the middlemen being cut out of the equation.
"With convenience like this(internet & mobile distrobution) news papers may be in more trouble than we know. Not to mention that news papers are huh…made of paper which is not exactly green. Digital may be the way to go... Kindles... I would definitely buy one!" Sounds like the news industry has its new middleman.
It's not new tho. Reuters & Huffington Post both have copious advertising. NPR has podcasts. On Reuters's website some commercials play longer than the stories they precede but they're there. And they're on Reuters! Reuters used to be that wire that news writers would listen to to write their stories from and now Reuters has a website directed at the consumer! Middleman gone!
I'm just sayin that the News Industry is seperate than the News Paper and becoming more so. Respected sources of news will still be respected and patronized. But that patronage is the responcability of the consumer, don't forget that.
Subscriptions to podcasts anyone?
Who was that senator that proposed tax exept status for news paper ad sales? Just imagine if Rupert Murdoch fell into the same bracket as National Public Radio, what would Faux News be like then? Does it mean we would see the liberalization of mainstream media? Doubt it, same execs would be running their same headlines.
But the writters?! What's gonna happen is the same thing Hollywood suffered durring the writters strike, 'cept this isnt voluntary. There will still be news programming, "Reality News!" Yep.
But the writers are back to work now, for cable and cable budgets. The writers strike was the best thing to happen to the quality of televised story telling since Rod Serling.
What does that mean for Journalists if the writers strike model holds? More in depth reporting for documentaries and 20/20 gets its own cable channel.
I completely agree with you. Newspaper was we know it isnt getting better. People are all about convenience and carrying a huge paper around, let alone tearing it apart to find a whole article which is usually all over the "local" section is definitely not the most convenient thing. Although we evolving it is at the stake of thousands of peoples careers.
ReplyDeleteIn lab we even broke down the components of a website, it is designed to draw your attention. The designers are also capable of viewing exactly how you see the images and they change then to redirect you to view images and information with imphasis on what they think is significant. If newspapers dont find a way to rekindle their relationship with readers, there will sadly be more newspaper as we know it.
It seems like everyone is taking off a little piece of the pie. The internet gives you the ability to view important stories as they happen, to see live broadcasts of whats happening and to see amateur photos of what transpires. Local TV gives you "breaking news" interrupting whatever is happening to give you the most significant updates almost immediately, as well as news syndications almost every 3 hours on local channels. Cell phone service providers have made "smart phones" that also give you the latest news instantly. Newspapers are lagging far behind and if they dont come up with something better than what they've been doing for decades, they will simply be left behind.