Thursday, November 5, 2009
No Need For Newspapers When We Have Technology
The end of the newspapers has been coming for years now. People get news, sports updates, weather, live TV, and just about anything you can imagine sent to their phones or e-mail. You can find just about anything you want on the Internet, and now your phone can provide real internet.
There is no need for people to go out and purchase a paper when you can read stories online anywhere. All the future generations will be born in a technology age so why didn’t newspapers see their end? Online papers are updated every few seconds.
There is a new gadget that will allow your newspaper or magazine to appear on an electronic plastic screen called an e-reader. Whether or not these gadgets will save newspaper companies we will have to wait and see. Newspaper companies need to use technology to their benefit. They could charge for their web sites and continue to look into new products like the gadget. Many papers have raised the prices to make up for the decline in sales.
The postal system could even come to an end with the success of e-mail and instant messaging. The death of the newspapers is just the beginning. People can now use web cams to communicate with people in other countries instead of waiting days for a letter. There seems to be no need for paper with all the electronic devices we can use instead. Technology has changed the way we conduct our daily lives.
Jessica Davis
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I definitely agree with you that newspapers are unnecessary when you think about the widespread availability to get news through technology and the Internet. I don’t know anyone my age that has a subscription to a newspaper. What is the point since we all have phones with Internet and personal laptops that allow us to read news online? According to James Stovall, The Web has such a strong impact due to its qualities of immediacy, flexibility, permanancy, capacity and interactivity.
ReplyDeleteStovall isn't the only one with this opinion. Blogger janiceay710 writes about the qualities of immediacy, permanancy and interactivity (link http://hkuspace.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/internet-vs-newspaper/) to explain why she believes Internet news is superior to print news.
I agree with Stovall and janiceay710, and believe these qualities directly relate to the wants and needs of society, which is what makes Internet news so successful. (And not to mention it's free!)
In order for newspapers to survive, they need to incorporate the above qualities into their production to attract current Internet-news readers. Whether this is even possible to do is a big question, but maybe it could happen through the e-reader. This gadget could give print news the qualities they currently lack, but there would still be the competition from Internet news sites, which are offered for free.
At the end of the day, newspapers just can’t keep up with Internet news because of society’s addiction to technology. I don’t foresee the demise of cell phones, computers or e-mail anytime soon, so newspapers must find a way to incorporate the qualities that make these technologies so successful.
-Marit Harm
I understand your rationale on new technology. New technologies are responsible for turning the “old” into the “new” and more efficient. Online news is a new technology, but was it created for the purpose of a new news medium, or was it to get rid of the newspaper?
ReplyDeleteWhat I really think about the decline in newspapers is that people aren’t reading like they used to. It is similar to reading the book versus watching the movie. Reading the newspaper is better exercise for your mind and is easier to read a tangible script versus a virtual one on a screen. Skimming through the news online may be quicker, but you are confined to that media outlet, and are likely not to get any balance.
Most people do not want to seek out information unless it is relevant to them. In Media Literacy 4th Edition, W. James Potter states that the rates of news exposure in the general public will continue to drop. He attributes this due to the low number of young people who read the newspaper, 38% versus 69% of senior citizens. However, he does not address the amount of young people who get their news online or through another source. More seniors read the newspaper than younger people, not a big surprise. What must be realized is that newspapers are now considered old fashion.
Technology has been making our lives a lot easier. Though I seem to agree with Sean on this standpoint. I notice that people who use online sources of news find sites that lean toward this bias to which they agree with. This means that you don't always get the full story. It's easy for a citizen to be misinformed and I believe that the internet has a lot to do with it. Newspapers allow citizens to fully digest what is going on in society. This better enables you to gain a sense of civic culture.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the online communities are civil. Your own knowledge is the measurement of the extent of what you read online or in print. People have the tendency to read what they want online, whereas I believe newspapers balance your information and news gathering experience. As stated on this site (link http://www.history.com/classroom/admin/study_guide/archives/thc_guide.0324.html, newspapers are the most democratic form of information.
I simply believe that the quality of the content of newspapers is better suited to inform us. It challenges us to obtain more knowlege and connect it with the happenings of our society.
This seems to make sense, considering the overtaking of society with technology. However, I agree with Sean's question of whether this gadget was invented for a new news medium, or to get rid of the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, though, that newspapers are considered old-fashioned. Newspapers were invented to produce the latest local and national news to citizens as quickly and accurately as possible, and they did it in the most efficient way available at the time. Though we now have the internet which is even more efficient, to most, the newspaper doesn't do anything the internet doesn't do. The newspaper provides all the news values according to James Stovall, chapter 4; it produces timely news, prominent news, events of proper proximity, news on conflict, news on the bizarre and unusual, and keeps up with currency.
The newspaper was the original producer of news values, making it possible for other media to follow the same way. According to a piece written by 40-Year-Old Blog, "Leave it to newspapers to clean up the details overlooked by the TV media," (http://40-year-oldblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-newspapers-are-important.html). They go on to discuss a story covered by Ann Curry on the Octuplet Mom, where some major details were left out in the interview and online, only to be found in an article in the Los Angeles Times.
Though there is a news gadget available specifically for news on the go, what about those unable to access that gadget? What if people cannot afford it? And if 69% of senior citizens read the paper, do you really think they will switch over to a "high-tech" gadget, when many don't even carry cell phones? The newspaper should not be taken away just because the times are changing and technology is advancing.