Physical and Digital Mass Media
What’s black, white and read no more? Readership and circulation of newspapers are on the decline, according to the Pew Research Center Fact Sheet. Has the power of the internet taken over or has all around interest in media and publications gone with the wind? Out with the old and in with the new seems to be the mantra.
The digital revolution threatens the future of print media. Freeness of media makes it easy for readers to get the information they require without purchasing a hard copy of a newspaper. Paul McGrath, assistant news editor at the Houston Chronicle said, “Circulation is declining and digitalization has an effect,” McGrath said. “We have so much computer power that news comes easily and free right to your fingertips, rendering newspapers much less useful than they were in the past.”
Newspapers provide a fresh and easy way to consume news, popular culture and more. They provide many points of view and topics, whether the reader is interested in politics, economy, cartoons, home repair or information on the hottest trends and gossip. No one can deny the importance of being informed, but with new generations and an evolving audience, readers have the ability to get their information from multitudes of channels.
Pew Research Center stated, “For newspapers, 2015 might as well have been a recession year,” the website wrote. “Weekday circulation fell 7% and Sunday circulation fell 4%, both showing their greatest declines since
Clay Shirky who wrote Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable (1993) argues that society doesn’t need newspapers society needs journalism to save society. Shirky supports this argument by giving a historical background to the problems newspapers face and how the problems have developed over time and the solutions society has came up with. The blogger concludes that in order for journalism to go farther new models must be created in place of past molds. Shirky directs this blog toward the current and future generations in attempt to motivate new models and methods of journalism.
In chapter 2 of The Filter Bubble by Eli Pariser, after discussing how although two newspapers still create the base of almost all news stories that get shared online, newspapers are failing daily. He then explains how news became centered around “public opinion” instead of just information about the outside world. Pariser reminds us that:
Now, with the advent of the internet greatly transforming the information-gathering sector, the newspaper industry is fighting a tough battle for profitability.
Newspapers and other forms of news are very vital communication methods in the world today. The goal of news is to sell us their ideas by being biased and talking about how their idea is best. News can give us biased information although, the viewer could do further research on the
A newspaper would show future generations what was going on in the world and what was important at the time.
In chapter one, Wattenberg discusses the declining trends of Americans who regularly read newspapers between the 1960’s and present day. This can be attributed the aging patterns among generations who frequently read newspapers as well as with the use of technology rising. Reading the newspaper is a habit that either is or is not developed by the time one reaches voting age. With this, newspapers have become an older generation’s primary source of information, however, are still the best source for political matters. Younger generations tend to be more computer literate and have grown up with television and media more accessible to them than the previous generation. These trends not only reflect in American culture, but in other countries
For decades, the Los Angeles Tribune was a driving force behind the news in Los Angeles. The emergence of the internet and of video news blogs and e-commerce have diminished the importance of printed media and greatly increased competition in the newspaper marketplace. Problems such as the rising cost of paper, and an aging customer based have affected the relevance of the Los Angeles Tribune. Also with the decreased advertising revenue, these have caused the paper to revise its goals.
The American public rarely reads the newspaper anymore because most people do not think the news is of that much
Jerkiewicz, who worked in the newspaper business for 15 years, said the subscriptions have fallen drastically. In 1995 the newspaper has about 24,000 copies in circulation, but in 2010, only has 9,000 copies in circulation. The readers however, had not quit reading the news, but had turned to online sources. He adds that magazines and newspapers should have a strong digital marketing plan. He thinks that traditional printing will continue to decline, but will never die out. There will still be a market, but it will just be smaller than it is now. He says that Kindle had not run print books out of business, and it never will. He adds that printing is so cheap now that printers are going out of business because falling subscription levels are leading to
Problem Statement: The advent of internet brought about both challenges and opportunities for the newspaper industry. On one hand, it required redesigning a new product suited for online customers and on the other it was an opportunity to reach to 123 million potential customers in this category. Thus to keep up with the pace of emerging digitization in every field, like all newspapers, New York Times also added online reading in their product portfolio. However it only worsened the crisis the newspaper was already going through. The operating profit declined by more than 76% from 234Mn$ in 2010 to a mere 57Mn$ in 2011. The circulations were steadily declining and the new online advertising could not compensate for print advertising
The newspaper industry is undergoing a radical change in three primary areas caused by technology. First, the underlying two-sided business model is changing. With the Advent of internet, news content is easily and freely available from various sources but lacks quality journalism and credibility. Revenues from online advertising are not large enough to compensate for decline in revenues from print advertising & subscription. Newspaper industry is experiencing new realm of new content delivery and in process of understanding and establishing sustainable sources and
Unlike the TV news, newspaper are portable and has no time limited, this has the advantages that people can read them whenever they want. But I believe that getting news from TVs is due to its efficiency, convenience and easy understanding is a lot better than just reading the
In 1760, The Boston News-Letter was the first newspaper to be continuously published in the United States. A 250-year legacy of printed news could not have lasted if it newspapers didn't not have it uses. Aside from the entertainment value, newspapers exist for the main purpose of bringing news of international, national, and local news to the doorsteps of the people. Without such frequent and stable form of communication, it would be difficult for any nation to call itself a free democracy. Today however, it cannot be expected that newsprint will last forever. Statistical data firmly suggests newspapers around the world are falling both in number and circulation. The past several years have been difficult for newspapers as other news
The belief that journalism is in decline has triggered major alarms, because society needs an informational environment that is easily available to all citizens such as newspapers. There is a large body of journalist that suggests that if television has taken over from the press as our main source of news this may limit our capacity to learn about public affairs; newspapers are believed to be far more effective than television at conveying detailed information necessary to understand complex and detailed issues. There is also widespread concern that if journalism fails as a profession it will not be able to reach large sections of the community, particularly younger or less educated readers. This may reinforce a growing gap among citizens between the information that they receive.
So in such a scenario, is it just the print media that is dying? Is it not TV and radio too? Although, it is the print media which seems endangered, it is a fact that the success of any media tells upon another media. It is only a tug of war going among these, where the centre gets oscillated between the ends.