Is print journalism dead?

As technology keeps evolving one begins to wonder, could something as common as reading a newspaper simply disappear?
Instead of opening their door and picking up the paper on their front porch in the morning, people seem to prefer turning on their computers and logging on to a website they know has all the information they need and want.

Last month Eric Alterman published on “The New Yorker” an article about how newspapers risk becoming extinct. Alterman believes that it is digital journalism that will take over the future of news. In the article Alterman says that since 1990, a quarter of all American newspaper jobs have disappeared.
Alterman included in his article interesting statistics:

• 39% of correspondents under the age of 35, according to “abandoning the News,” published by the Carnegie Corporation use the Internet as their main news source.
• 9% of people rely on a newspaper.

These statistics characterize the majority of the society we live in. In fact, even as a journalism student, I rarely see people pick up a newspaper to gather their news, rather they log on to websites such as www.cnn.com in order to get a full picture of what is going on in the world.
I believe one of the reasons why people choose the Internet as opposed to print journalism is that the websites quickly show you several headlines, giving you a very brief overview of what’s going on in the world and at the same time they allow you to choose which story to read.
One of the features of online news gathering that I really appreciate is the possibility in many of them to see a list of the most read stories. Not only does this give me an idea as a journalist of what people are interested in, but, most of the times, it also allows me to quickly find stories that are truly worth reading.
Gathering your news online allows you to select your topic of interest, whether that is world news, politics or entertainment, and go in great depth on the subject. Also, digital journalism has the advantage that you get the news as soon as they take place. You don’t have to wait till the next day for the paper to arrive to figure out what happened in the world during the day.
Another great feature of online journalism is that it often gives the readers the opportunity to post comments in blogs and discuss a particular issue with people who have just read the same article or share a common interest.
However Alterman brings up an important issue: aggregation and opinion is cheap. Can we consider this real journalism? I agree with Alterman when he states that writing a good article takes hard work, definitely not comparable to the small effort it takes to write a blog.

Alan Sloan

Allan Sloan had a long and successful career working for Newsweek Magazine which culminated when he was appointed editor of Fortune Magazine. Born in Brooklyn, Sloan won two lifetime awards throughout his career as a journalist.

Yesterday Allan Sloan talked to a group of SMU students eager to discuss an important issue: is journalism dead? Sloan addressed the issue at the William J. O'Neil business lecture in Crum Auditorium.

Sloan thinks journalism is for sure not dead. He has been working for 40 years and was hired by seven employers. According to Sloan, the main problem with journalism is the low paycheck one gets at the end of the month. In order to be able to be an accomplished journalist you have to learn to work through difficult situations, to persevere and keep going even when times get rough.
Sloan said that people want to know what is going on in the world, and our job as journalists is to explain it to them in a clear and simple way.

Sloan dedicated a part of his speech to talking about his take on business journalism. When a student asked whether it would be better to major in journalism and minor in business or vieversa, Sloan said he had no idea. His conference was confusing in some parts as he really jumped from one topic to the next with little connection between them.

At the end of the conference he made a joke which I will not report as it was a bit vulgar, but that stated what he had been telling us throughouth the whole lecture: there is always a story, even when you don't think there is one. All you have to due is keep looking until you find it.

Sloan said he thinks eventually newspapers will fade away, however not any time soon. I remain curious, jsut like Sloan, of what journalism will be like in the future, and of the new ways journalists will find to present news.

Global Blogging

It was Christmas vacation when my brother got really upset over a book he just read with a bad ending and the first thing he said was: "I can't wait to get on a computer destroy the book in my blog.".

Kline and Burstein's book "Blog!" definitely got two points right about blogging: it is global and it is metaphor of interactivity.

Blogging has become global. My brother is Italian and he is 18 years old. Through blogging he thought his opinion on the book would get around. The book was a fascinating tale with a very weak ending, and my brother wanted to let possible readers know that it was not worth buying this book, that it was disappointing.

No matter what part of the world you live in, you can blog, you can express your opinion, you can tell people what you know, what you have found out, what you care about. The best part about blogging is that you quickly find out that other millions of people have an opinion about the exact same subject, or simply about a blog post you wrote.

I used to think people who spent their day on the computer - such as my brother - were not social people and were sitting in front of a machine plugged into the wall. By reading and discovering more about blogging I have discovered a whole world I was not familiar with. Not only can you share knowledge and opinions with people who live in the same city you live in, but also with people who are on the opposite side of the world. Even though I have to stick to my opinion that spending too much time on the computer makes him a bit anti social, I must admit blogging allows him to voice his opinions to people he would otherwise never be able to talk to. His post can influence people he doesn’t' even know. It is therefore both global and metaphor of inactivity.

In the introduction to the book, Kline and Burstein say bloggin has always existed and use as an example DaVinci's diaries, as well as several other diaries.

I have to disagree with them. When I think of blogging I think of a personal opinion on a certain matter and not an expert's view on a subject.

Even though it is true that lots of experts blog on their subject of expertise, how do you know which bloggers to trust? How do you know that the person who posted his comment is an expert about whatever it is he's posting about? Online, you can change your identity, you can pretend you are a different person from the one you actually are. Even though someone identifies him/herself as an expert, you are the one who has to choose whether to believe them or not.

Comparing a genius’s journal to a blogger is a bit of an insult to DaVinci, I believe.
I agree with Kline and Burstein's that diaries are the ancestors of blogs, however, blogs have developed in something different today.

Just as Kline and Burstain said, blogs restore “the lost voice of the ordinary citizen in our culture.”

Travelblog's view of the Maldives

http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Maldives/blogs-page-2.html

As I was surfing through various sites searching for travel blogs about the Maldives, travelblog caught my attention as it I would refer to it to find out whether these islands are a worthy destination for my next vacation.

Travelblog is an easily accessible website that offers insight about what tourists liked and disliked about their vacation. You can type in your dream destination and in just one click receive hundreds of opinions by people who have already visited the Maldives. However, it is up to you to decide whether to believe them or not, whether their opinions matter, or better yet, to find a blog worth reading. In fact, out of all the blogs I read on the website about the Maldives, only a few were truly worth my time.

Countless spelling and grammar mistakes impregnated the website, as a blogger can truly write whatever he wishes. Several bloggers are not native English speakers, which would justify their poor writing skills, however, it would only take a spell check to correct all those grammar errors.

However, even though certain entries are not interesting nor well written, several others can truly help a traveler realize aspects of the Maldives he had not previously thought about.

I went to the Maldives this winter, and therefore I can easily relate to the experiences of all of the bloggers: reaching the island takes forever, however it is absolutely worthless to specify every detail of the journey. I particularly enjoyed the pictures posted by the bloggers, in particular those by Stephanie Wandke (http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Maldives/blog-217861.html), as they illustrate beautiful sceneries and sunsets that are the primary reason why one would choose the Maldives as their destination.

Although I enjoyed reading how these bloggers shared the same experience of excitement and relaxation upon their arrivals at the islands, often times I found myself wondering why a person feels the need to include boring details of their plane ride and delays in their connecting taxi-boat rides. When a blogger clicks on a website to search for comments by others who have already gone to the Maldives, he is not looking for a description of everything that went wrong in the time frame that includes the blogger shutting his front door to his arrival to destination. Perhaps, the reader would find more useful to know whether he should reserve a particular room on the island, which rooms have a better view, or the fact that he should bring bug repellant or very high sun screen if his skin is “mozzarella” white.

The worst blogger I found on this subject at this site is “Kay,” a girl who wrote a blog entry a day filled with her pictures ina bikini that included absolutely no useful information. How she chose the Maldives as her destination is certainly none of our business, and will never interest a person reading this site. Everyone has their original story and are reading these entries to find out whether the place they chose as their destination truly suits them. I doubt an entry a day about a place such as the Maldives, which is made of beautiful resorts, will ever help a traveler to find out more information about his next trip.

I believe that ideally a blogger who spends time writing on this site should take the time to include weather conditions, specific islands one should visit, what one should bring in order for his journey to be more pleasant and comfortable, and what one should hope to gain from his vacation (such as relaxation or simply a wonderful tan or cultural knowledge).

My First Post

This is my first post. 

A second will be coming soon.