Changing the Face of the News

The way most people get there news these days has had a major effect and it will likely have an effect on the way news is delivered to the public for years to come. Recent studies have revealed that an increasing number of people now get their news from the internet as well as from television news outlets than from traditional newspapers. The result has been that circulation is down and print newspapers are on the decline. In just the past year, numerous newspapers have reduced the number of plants they operate and how many printings they make per day. Some newspaper companies have even gone on to close printing plants as they no longer print in such large quantities.

I can understand why. With rising costs for resources and an economy that is not quite what it was a few short years ago, everyone is trying to figure out how to cut costs and save a bit of money. Still, I can't help but feel sad about the fact that a staple from my childhood, the daily paper, will soon be gone. I will admit that when I was younger I had time to read the paper before going to school. At that time, browsing the internet or going online to read the paper at school was not so common. The internet was still coming into its own when I was in high school so using it for research was still quite a new thing. I can remember clipping articles from the paper and attaching it to reports for some of my English and journalism classes in college.

Now it seems that those days are going to be looked upon with increasing nostalgia. Those same studies concluded that web-based media is on the rise and that many people are looking to those sources for the news. It makes sense. These days we have become a society that requires instant gratification about our curiousities. If we suspect something may have happened in the world, we just hop online and in a few short clicks we'll know what's happening and where. Think about it, the internet is often even faster than television in terms of getting the news out there. You can often read more about events on the internet than you will on television. For example, this past weekend, I found out about the earthquake in Chile after seeing the headline on Google's splash page. From there I got access to news agencies and channels from around the world and with having done nothing more than clicking a mouse button I got all the latest information.

It's a powerful thing to have that much knowledge at the click of a mouse or from a few keystrokes. I can't help but feel sorry for the declining number of traditional newspaper sales out there. It will mean that not only will people who work in that industry have an impact on their jobs but also for some of the smaller folks out there who thrive on the newspaper industry. I'm thinking of the young paperboys who view the job as a rite of passage. What if they no longer have to work paper routes, what will they do then? I guess it's a sign of changing times and as with any steps towards progress, there must be change.