I do not mind that print newspapers are becoming a rarity. News is an extremely important thing to pay attention to. If there is any way to gain a more diverse audience paying attention to their surroundings, it is simply a good thing. The culture of print newspaper readers has historically been readers above the age of 35. It also includes mainly middle class citizens to upper class citizens since print newspapers have been very intellectual and one would need an education to understand the information and vocabulary put out by newspapers. This culture of newspaper readers has changed a bit over the years, but much of what was true in the past, is true presently since one still needs a good education to read intellectual papers. Online newspapers are different than print newspapers in that they include shorter articles, they include visual accompaniments to help the reader understand ideas, they often have hyperlinks which can explain a word that may not be easily understood, and they usually have multiple articles on a single topic. These new characteristics all help citizens who may not have had an adequate education. This alone, increases readership across the board. I also believe increased readership comes from the fact that people don’t have restrictions of the past culture of print newspaper readers. This just means people now don’t have to rebel against a cultural norm of what newspaper readers used to look like. Instead of feeling like an old white man in his armchair reading the afternoon news, people can now escape that cultural connection reading online news. Basically anyone who knows how to work a computer feels comfortable reading online news. The third reason I think there is an increased online newspaper readership is because it is free. Not everyone likes spending 50 cents a day for a newspaper that they might not even get to reading. In online newspapers, one doesn’t usually have to pay a dime. People may say getting a newspaper delivered to you everyday may make you more likely to read it, but I say having a newspaper website as one’s homepage can also serve that purpose.
My number one reason in having respect for online newspapers is that they convey a wide variety of perspectives and opinions. In one of “About My Planet”‘s articles, my belief is illustrated beautifully. In the article, “Internet: Death of the Newspaper?” the author states how blogging expresses more diverse opinions than print newspapers. The author then adds how this leads readers to question authority and statistics. Instead of having just a few print newspapers in one’s physical reach, one has an overwhelming array of news sources just by typing and clicking. Because news is only arguably objective, having only a couple of news sources may result in only one or two perspectives being told. Having a choice of hundreds to thousands of news sources makes it so much easier for someone to find the facts about an event compared to having a choice of only a few.
The online newspaper trend obviously isn’t perfect. If I could choose how news is distributed, I would continue to encourage a multitude of news companies to go online. I would encourage bloggers to continue telling the world their perspective, however, I would have them put out more credible information so more people can rely on them. Not everyone is able to own a computer with internet, so still including some print newspapers would be crucial. These print newspapers would be relied on heavily by people who can’t afford computers and people who aren’t able to understand computers. According to MSNBC, small print newspapers are surviving better because they cover unique, local events. I would have small print newspapers be the ones that would serve the print readership. I would trust these small newspaper companies to put out less biased stories because they would have less chance of being lobbied by large companies. Other than these changes I would make to the newspaper system, I am quite happy with the way things are going with the switch towards online.
My number one reason in having respect for online newspapers is that they convey a wide variety of perspectives and opinions. In one of “About My Planet”‘s articles, my belief is illustrated beautifully. In the article, “Internet: Death of the Newspaper?” the author states how blogging expresses more diverse opinions than print newspapers. The author then adds how this leads readers to question authority and statistics. Instead of having just a few print newspapers in one’s physical reach, one has an overwhelming array of news sources just by typing and clicking. Because news is only arguably objective, having only a couple of news sources may result in only one or two perspectives being told. Having a choice of hundreds to thousands of news sources makes it so much easier for someone to find the facts about an event compared to having a choice of only a few.
The online newspaper trend obviously isn’t perfect. If I could choose how news is distributed, I would continue to encourage a multitude of news companies to go online. I would encourage bloggers to continue telling the world their perspective, however, I would have them put out more credible information so more people can rely on them. Not everyone is able to own a computer with internet, so still including some print newspapers would be crucial. These print newspapers would be relied on heavily by people who can’t afford computers and people who aren’t able to understand computers. According to MSNBC, small print newspapers are surviving better because they cover unique, local events. I would have small print newspapers be the ones that would serve the print readership. I would trust these small newspaper companies to put out less biased stories because they would have less chance of being lobbied by large companies. Other than these changes I would make to the newspaper system, I am quite happy with the way things are going with the switch towards online.
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