The End of Print Journalism
Perhaps this is not the best headline for my first foray into blogging, but ask any newspaper Journalist who doesn’t know what a blog, podcast or twitter is, they are getting increasingly worried by the prospect of e-journalism completely taking over traditional print methods. Recently the excuse that ‘online news doesn’t allow for concise comment and debate’ has been blown away by various user generated content integrations, to such an extent that these websites can present stories much more effectively than print journalism can.
Being lucky enough to be invited to the Guardian Student Media Conference i noticed that a key theme throughout was ‘although print is dying, the industry needs young journalists to find new ideas and methods within publications’. Roy Greenslade, a high profile journalist who was editor of the Daily Mirror, amongst many other top positions, mused on how he has adapted his material to include video, audio and animations. It seems that those who will survive within the media arena will be those who are willing to adapt to the rapid changes within the industry and as a result, perhaps die hard Newspaper journalists will be filtered out.
Whether this is a good stimulus for the Industry or not, we are yet to see, but i would like to think that there will always be a place for print. I detest looking at a screen for prolong periods of time, and i am sure i am not alone. The passion seems to be lacking on pixels which can be changed within an instant, but when you are holding a copy in your hands, dog-eared with a coffee stain on the front page it feels personal. User generated content and comment can’t succeed the professionals, it will merely spur them on powered by criticism and insight.
So, i urge you, go and buy a newspaper before people with usernames such as nazbags2000 and sexytexan07 post ill-informed bollocks to the nation. I’ve just realised, that’s exactly what i’m doing!