Blog Entry #3: What about newspapers?
Due Date: Friday, February 8
Blogger and high school librarian Carolyn Foote writes on her blog about a speech she attended given at the University of Texas by former newspaper editor Molly Ivins. She came away thinking, at least partly, about the future of journalism and how it relates to schools. She writes:
Her [Milly Ivins'] concern that night was the future of journalism; specifically, the future of newspapers. I have thought of her insights often the last few months.
She was aware that because of the instant availability of news online, that newspapers were going to have to change, and she felt that because large conglomerates have been purchasing many urban newspapers, their main concern has been profits, and not the reporting. Because newspaper profit margins had increased in the 90’s, owners now have the expectation that newspapers should make higher profits than they had made in the past. So reporters have been laid off at many large newspapers, and there is more use of “headline” stories, etc.
What do you think? I’ll outline a few of the questions that come to my mind about this situation. Feel free to engage any of them or your own questions in your blog post for this week.
- Do you think there is a future for print news? If so, what will that future look like? If not, why?
- What advantages do print publications have over digital news sources?
- How do you think the job of a reporter will change over time?
McCallum
Secured by
Tuesday, February 5th 2008 at 8:39 am
“Access to information online is changing everything–from businesses, to newspapers, to television….to, yes, schools.” Definitely. Look at the way we’re using Internet now – blogging, the Forum, Google Docs, and the Wiki. Not to mention that we’re using simple e-mail services to send pictures, text, and video links to each other.
One thing I’m confused about – in the blog, Foote referred to a “Boston incident.” What exactly is that?
Tuesday, February 5th 2008 at 1:45 pm
i like to be different.
Wednesday, February 6th 2008 at 12:18 pm
[...] by the end of the Friday: Blog post #3 “What about [...]
Saturday, February 9th 2008 at 8:33 am
Keeper of the Kobolds,
I was talking about an incident last year when someone planted those signs with characters from Adult Swim on them, and the police thought it was a terrorist incident. I found it amazing that not one of them had seen the show or knew their teenagers were watching it and recognized the character.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_bomb_scare
Hope that helps clear it up!