Perhaps I am a bit bias because I will soon be writing for Spartanedge.com, an online publication at MSU, but I read a letter on The Big Green website that made me think. Constantly we have been taught that print will soon die and that all things will go electronic. No matter how much it has been hammered into my head by classes and readings, I must continuously beg to differ. The managing editor of TBG, Cara Binder, brings to the forefront an issue in journalism that has gotten a great amount of play in recent years: shall print journalism stop it's presses for good?
In my opinion the written word has been around far too long to assume that, just because technology abounds, printed news will die a horrible stone age-like death. It just doesn't sit well with me. I am under the persuasion that the future holds great things for multimedia journalism, using all senses to engross the audience into what is going on in the world today. But I can't see print just going away. It may however change it's coat rather drastically.
That's where the alternative press comes in.
I was talking to a friend on the bus recently about various topics and we stumble upon the idea of E-books becoming mainstream. These days they have electronic devices equivalent to ipods in which one can hold thousands of books on a palm-sized, hand-held quadrilateral. The Sony Reader Digital Book is one example My friend doesn't think that it will catch on. There is something about holding a paperback book (or hardcover if your rich) in your hand and taking it along with you; writing notes in the margins or dog earring one of the pages (which I wouldn't recommend, but to each is own) can't be done with a plastic screen.
There may be those of you reading this who not agree with me. That's fine. I would like to direct you to this blog, which is probably a bit better suited for you. But I must leave you with this thought: Even though we have websites like Itunes, which gives us music from all over the world almost instantaneously, there are still quite a few record stores around the country. Why can't print journalism be the same way?
1 comment:
I agree with you. I think print journalism will change, but it will never really be gone. Newspapers have already begun to stop printing, but are still putting special sections in other papers. And although we are in a high-tech age, not everyone can still afford a computer and the internet to access the information. While I have access to both, I still read the paper daily. Just like you said, reading a book is not the same online when you can lay down on a comfy bed or couch and just relax reading. Reading the newspaper is the same. Internet news may be more updated but there is something about reading an actual newspaper that is comforting.
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