Since the nineties print newspapers have slowly and steadily lost their hold in American culture. People have quickly turned towards the Internet to obtain information faster and with les effort. The demise of print news is both good and bad for American culture.
The dawn of the Internet quickly provided constant exposure to new information and news. The Internet has allowed readers to access information almost immediately after seeking it. Online news has also allowed readers to become more involved in the news world. Readers can now directly give feedback through comments and posts. The Internet has allowed news to be continually updated and examined. Online news has even allowed writers to give a point of view in their articles that they were unable to present in the past due to fear of losing their jobs. This immediate and specialized information that is presented online has made traditional newspapers look “slow and unresponsive” as stated in The New Yorker. The efficiency of online news often compensates for the fact that it is much less credible then print news.
With that said, the lack credibility and accuracy in online news is it’s main downfall. With articles created at such a rapid pace, they are often overlooked by editors and sometimes not acknowledged at all. Online news has created less trusting readers. The front page of news sites is usually clean and slick in order to gain cooperate sponsors, but otherwise online news sites tend to be a bit sloppy when it comes to creditability. The need for web traffic on these news sites has allowed readers and users gain control over the news that they have not had control over in the past. While it is good to have involved readers, the line is often crossed on online news sites. Information frequently becomes unreliable due to the fact that many uninformed readers are able to voice their opinions very easily. According to Dividend Growth Investor one problem that newspapers have is that since they have lost popularity they have become skinnier; featuring less information. While the prices of newspapers have continued to rise, they have also continued to provide less information and fewer pages. These skinny newspapers have caused more people then ever to look to the Internet for information. Readers find value in the fact that online news is not only free, but also provides a greater amount of information at the click of a few buttons.
While print newspapers have been very important to American culture in the past, they have rapidly lost relevance and importance in America. Many people are looking to the Internet for more opinionated news that they find more relateable and that coincide with their own beliefs. Readers are willing to sacrifice credibility for easier access and more specialized news. The only way for newspapers to come out from the shadows is for them to undergo some serious change. The Newspaper world is in dire need of a makeover. Print news must embrace the Internet instead of viewing it as the enemy if they hope to be revived in the future.
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Information on the internet is prolific and thus very difficult to police. For this reason, it is true that much of it goes unfiltered and un-cited. Though you could argue that this causes online news sources to lack credibility and accuracy, it is important to also consider the level of credibility and accuracy present in traditional news sources. I believe that both are susceptible to these downfalls. However, online news has something that traditional news does not; interactivity and many alternate sources. For this reason, any online article can be annotated or revised, or compared with a plethora of alternate sources instantaneously.
ReplyDeleteAnother problem with traditional news sources is their tendency to be influenced by partisan interests. “As part of a corporate community, newspaper owners may be susceptible to conflicts of interest that compromise their coverage” states Art Silverblatt in Media Literacy. For the most part online news, especially citizen journalists, are trusted more by readers to act as watchdogs for the mainstream media. They cover a wider range of stories and offer multiple perspectives on issues.
The armature, unrestricted, and anonymous nature of online news is frowned upon by the established and elite main stream media. However, this freedom from restrictions allows writers online to break stories that may not be otherwise covered. Silverblatt states “unnamed sources give wider access to inside information, by enabling informed individuals to talk without fear of recrimination.” Though anonymity is difficult to trust, it may often be more trustworthy than a source that is too afraid to tell the real story.
The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) is a legitimate online news source that is best described as a public forum. The site is set up to display a range of stories gathered and compared across the entire internet. Furthermore, a wide range of articles are posted on the cite ranging from professional to armature writers. Most importantly, the stories are continually commented on and revised by the readers. Though problems with online news are legitimate, The Huffington Post is a prime example of how these problems are overcome. Traditional news is much less responsive to their flaws. In this way, the benefits of online news outweigh the problems. Unless traditional news sources can find a way to overcome their problems, they are doomed.