The Future of Journalism
By Alexia Walters
Topic
The influence advances in technology have had
on print media and what this means for future
news consumption. Especially relating to
newspapers in small communities.
Why do a creative project?
Questions
• Is there a place for several news mediums in the
future, or will paper die out completely?
• Are newspapers an essential part of a
democratic society?
• What are communities actually losing when
they lose their local newspapers?
• Do you think communities are willing to fight to
keep their newspapers open?
• Why do you think some newspapers fail and
others succeed?
• What makes technology a more appealing way
to get news (TV, apps, Facebook, online
newspapers)?
• What can other media outlets offer that print
cannot? And vice versa?
• Do you think bigger media outlets need local
newspapers (keystone media)?
• Does social media and citizen journalists help or
hurt the idea of quality journalism?
What Scholars Say
• Current generation doesn’t read.
• Entranced by the Internet
• Look to social media for news
• Green movement (a question of efficiency?)
• Local newspapers connect people, both consciously and
unconsciously.
• Civil engagement: the public’s participation in the
community in order to improve conditions and shape the
future [An informed electorate].
• If a local newspapers stops printing, the effects are
likely to be felt less by individuals and more by
broadcast media outlets. Without the detailed
coverage of local communities by newspapers, these
new stations would have a harder time monitoring
events around the area and would have to decided
when to allocate funds to cover those events.
In a World Without
Newspapers
• Forfeit of basic democratic rights
• Free speech can be influenced in big media outlets because
of corporate influence and ownership.
• People in power control the news.
• Public opinion is unheard.
• Government actions go unwatched.
• Quality of news goes down as the quantity goes up
• Breaking news becomes more important than local
happenings.
• Click bait
• Loss of a local, historical, chronological guide to the
town
• The newspaper helps the community have a conversation
with itself that you don’t get in other ways.
• “…a community ought to be able to look in the mirror
and see it’s newspaper looking back. And that image
should include all their blemishes, their good side and
bad side. And it should include clues on how to improve
that image.”
• Local government is the most important part of your
world because their decisions immediately effect you.
What Professionals Say
• “Democracy is built on the fact that, or the basis that people
will make their own decisions once they have the information
and if you don’t have the information and all you have are
these screaming heads and the innuendo and the false
statements which to base decisions, we’re in big trouble...”
• “I have old ladies tell me they have been reading it for 70 years
and they’re not giving up. They still want their Casey County
news...”
• “Given the current climate, how inefficient it is to publish
something on dead trees, print it, somehow get it on the trucks,
delivered to the people’s houses, that apparatus is very
expensive and very inefficient.”
• “I hope and I believe that in a free society, which is a
supply and demand type of society for everything,
that eventually people will demand good journalism
and out of that demand will grow a business model
for digital... And that’s when we’ll probably see the
demise of newspapers.”
• “We’re going to go back, just like the food
movement. Grow local, eat local, I think people are
going to read local, and so I really don’t see it dying
whatsoever. If anything I see it doing better.”
• “Get the for-profit element of out of newspapers,
and sort of just recognize there is a public need
there. It’s kind of like sewer systems, telephone
systems...garbage, it’s almost like a public utility.
They don’t exist to make money per say, they exist to
continue to exist; just enough money to keep them
going. Newspapers almost need to go that route,
because there is enough advertising and interest that
you can keep a newspaper afloat you just can’t also
spit off profits...”
Alternatives to Traditional
Newspapers
• Social Media
• Broadcast News/Video
• Online Newspapers
• Sub forums, similar to Reddit
• Blogs
***Basically any trusted, common source of information
from reliable people
Conclusions
Newspapers may never disappear, but the need for an
improved business model is still there. The one that was
in place has become outdated and needs to be changed
to make way for technology. This will in turn help
newspapers, instead of hurt them.