The Demise of Newspapers

Technology has played a huge role in our culture, from medical advances that save lives or help people recover quicker from operations to HD televisions that make life more pleasurable. Sadly, the same can’t be said to the newspaper industry, thanks to the advance of technology such as the internet. Only 10 years ago, the status of print journalism was soaring and seemed like it wouldn’t stop, but according to http://www.newsweek.com/id/now, it's been in danger of extinction for a long time. The revolution of computers and the internet have made the newspaper industry lose its readers at a slow but steady rate. The advance of technology on the web and the advantages provided by it, such as immediacy, have led to the demise of the print newspaper.

Ever since the advancement of the internet, its biggest advantage arguably is immediacy. It is quicker and easier to put out news online rather than to print it. With the internet, once something happens worth being reported or information is available, it can be put on the online within a few seconds. For example, according to http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=5050933, the Los Angeles Lakers signed Kobe Bryant to a three-year contract extension worth $90 million. The story was online within a few seconds after General Manger Mitch Kupchak announced the extension during a press conference even though he didn’t finish his statement providing the details. When more information is available, it can simply get added online to the information already known. We all want to know more right away especially during frantic circumstances thus online journalism provides the best access to immediacy.

While it takes time to generate and allocate newspapers, the best print journalism can do is work on a story today, but have to wait for the next day until it gets reported and distributed. Newspapers also have to go through several steps before even being distributed such as editing or getting duplicated hundreds or thousands of times by a photocopier, printer, or printing press. This can be a hassle especially if there were problems with the printing machines.

Despite the advantages provided by immediacy, the accuracy and credibility of online news have been questioned. The effort to publish brand new information quick as possible makes it more likely that the information hasn’t been verified to ensure accuracy. In the case of the Kobe Bryant contract extension, this was announced by the organization who gave it him, the Los Angeles Lakers. Therefore the accuracy and credibility won’t be questioned. Events in the news are posted right away thus allowing early access to the readers but can be a risk if it’s not verified. For example, most journalists develop personal sources so they can break a news story on the internet before they’re rivals. Most sources might not be credible unless they have a high ranking, thus undermining the journalistic principle of accuracy. Additionally, this makes it difficult for readers to distinguish which news industries are and aren’t credible.

The newspaper has been such a huge part of our culture that it would cause a huge impact if it disappeared. For the last few centuries the newspaper has been the glue holding our democracy together. With the extinction of the print journalism industries, comes the extinction of reliable information in politics, the economy, and society. This also means the internet would mostly contain junk information because it prides itself to bring it to more people faster and cheaper.