Tough Times for Newspapers

There is no doubt that those who write for newspapers are extremely talented. They clearly possess everything that is necessary in order to be an outstanding writer. The one thing that is unfortunate about being a writer for a newspaper is that there are many limits to how they can write. For one, they have to fit their story into a certain space that is then blocked with a bunch of other stories. Also, newspaper writers generally just state facts to their audience and it's left at that. There isn't much room left for audience interaction.

On the internet, writers have much more freedom. Instead of having to fit their story into an amount of space, they usually have much more freedom as to how long their story can be. Also, instead of simply telling their audience a story, there is usually an area for feeback from the readers. With the readers being able to interact with the writer and the story, a much more bonded community is then created. With a greater interaction between readers and the media/writers, stories can also be told more thoroughly because of all of the extra insight. Those are only a couple reasons as to why the internet is more beneficial not only to the audience, but also the writers.

In the article our class read by Silverblatt, he said that 7% of Americans get their news from new technologies, 31% of adults, and people in their forties are even more likely to go online for news than young adults. He continued to state that that convenience of the internet as well as the immediacy are huge factors as to why people prefer internet over the newspaper. When I looked into more of what Silverblatt thought regarding newspapers and the internet, I found out that he is a huge book reader. He would much rather read a book than sit on the internet. On the other hand, he has spread his love of book reading to the internet. In an article I read about him called The Consummate Reader, it says that his book Bookworm online archive includes almost 1,000 interviews. Also, people around the world downloaded 275,270 free podcasts from the site. That is another example of how the audience is much more able to get involved with media. Also, if he had simply placed his stories, interviews, and thoughts in newspapers, he wouldn't have got nearly as much recognition as well.

Newspapers, in a way, limit the knowledge that could be spread throughout the world. Sure, there are ways in which they give out as much knowledge with their facts. On the other hand, not everybody can get their hands on a newspaper. Subscriptions to newspapers can be expensive. It can also be expensive if someone wants to buy only the Sunday paper. Silverblatt's online archive is completely free, along with most news sources online.

The demise of newspapers will be troubling for all of its talented writers. However, there is a whole other online community available now to welcome those writers. The benefits for the writers as well as the audience certainly outweight the benefits that came from newspapers. The writers will now be able to express themselves more in their articles. Also, they will have more freedom to write their stories in ways that they may be more comfortable with. Then, society will have the chance to interact with those writers who have had both the experience of writing with limits for a newspaper as well as writing on the more reader-friendly internet.

Abby Lindsay