Try this...go to Google and start typing "newspapers are" in the search box. Google has this feature we have all probably experienced where it attempts to fill in the rest of your search based on what others are searching, providing an interesting look at the cultural zeitgeist such as it is.
Without revealing the exact results of this little exercise, I am probably not revealing any spoilers here by saying that many of the suggestions comment on the state of the modern newspaper industry. Many people think newspapers dying and some even applaud their decline. I think this is a dangerous trend. We need good investigative reporting as an important check on powerful interests, both business and government (and particularly when the two collude). I have seen many arguments that new media and bloggers will fill the vacuum. The initial results I have seen are not promising as they mostly reprint and comment on articles from other sources doing very little to no fact checking much less reporting.
If newspapers vanish without a credible replacement, we are in for a new age of corruption the likes of which they country has never experienced.
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4 comments:
I was a little hesitant to follow your suggestion after being burnt by another lead you recently posted.....
The problem with newspapers IS the lack of investigative reporting. Pick up our local paper. Everything is copied off the AP, hashed and rehashed, often times terribly out of date.
There is very little local news being printed. You may get one article per week from each of the reporters. Nothing in-depth, maybe a photo of something they stumbled across, maybe something they "gleaned" from one of the local blog sites.
Printing it on paper is not cost effective, is not good for the planet, nor is it timely.
We are in a transition phase. Online users are growing, but because it is widly possible for anyone to disseminate news quickly online, everyone wants to be able to read it for free. The same issues face music production, movies and television programs.
Hey, I have you fair warning on that previous one...some people just ignore warning labels!
On that note, just a couple of weeks ago my local paper the Arizona Daily Star (a Lee Enterprises joint) redid their paper to highlight more local coverage. It's a good step, but they need to take it further.
I know we are in a transition phase as you say and I want to at least be a voice out here trying to make sure we don't drop the ball on this one as the stakes are pretty high.
I've always read newspapers. Got it from my father. He read them originally to learn the language while learning the culture. I loved the Chicago papers when I lived there and I think the Journal Sentinel is a top-notch paper. But they, too, have stated that investigative journalism (like the childcare scams) is expensive. Some stories they put in print on Sunday, but hold off publishing online until Monday in an effort to stay profitable.
I still like a newspaper to read while I eat. I can't do that with the computer.
Yesterday's Dilbert: http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-17/
I agree with hale that the internet is rife with misinformation and disinformation. What would this town do without the Racine Post to uncover City Hall's Limbaugh-Pelosi? Who else cares enough to do the dirty work?
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