The future of traditional media in Australia as we know it is under threat. Most of us grew up with the daily cycle of the morning newspapers and 6pm television news. With the immense growth of social media and online communication can we really expect that to stay the same? Perhaps the more pertinent question is ‘do we actually care?’
Undoubtedly, online media is a growing beast (monster?) that is too big to ignore for media agencies the world over. Look what the daily average circulation of the New York Times was in 2007:
- Online unique users (12 month average): 13,372,000
- Print circulation – weekday: 1,120,420
- Print circulation – Sunday: 1,627,062
(Karp, 2007)
Perhaps the younger generations (Y & Z) wouldn’t even notice if we said goodbye to hard copy newspapers forever. In this day and age what do they actually add to our lives?? I’m curious to know how many people actually still read newspapers? And by read, I don’t mean just skim through it at a cafe – but actually take the time to invest yourself in an article or a story.
And even if you do, how
many of you would mind if you had to get all your news strictly from online sources? How much would it impact your daily routine?
many of you would mind if you had to get all your news strictly from online sources? How much would it impact your daily routine?
But at the same time, think about this. What sort of effect would this have on journalistic standards in this country? It is not unforeseeable that such a watershed moment could have a knock-on effect which sees the standard of reporting in this country ever-so-slightly deteriorate.
Ron Reed, Contributing Editor for the Herald Sun when recently asked about it said “I think there is so much emphasis now on being first with everything that the art of wordsmithery has taken a bit of a back seat.” This may be a slight blip on the radar – or the beginning of the slippery slope.
“Hopefully, the instantaneous nature of online newsgathering and presentation might lead to newspapers reverting to good writing _ commentary, analysis, eyewitness colour _ as a selling point.”
But what if it doesn’t? I’m curious as to what the next step is...
Arguably, our potential acceptance of diminishing standards from our news-gathers constitutes tacit agreement to further decreases.
So our rush to break every story first leads us to be a little sloppy with our wordplay and paragraph structure... No big deal. So our determination to have our web page updated before the next news agency leads us to be lax with our fact-checking... Surely, that’s forgivable?
So we can get a bigger, faster, sexier scoop if we write what a certain law firm or govt official wants us to write... It’s worth it yeah? The public won’t mind – they’ve put up with everything else.
Am I being too alarmist, or is it possible that the little changes we accept, even take for granted, now are the big problems we will face tomorrow? After all, we are talking about something which we all use and process every day - consciously or not.
Karp, S, Newspaper Online vs Print Ad Revenue; The 10% Problem, viewed on 12th Sept 2012, http://publishing2.com/2007/07/17/newspaper-online-vs-print-ad-revenue-the-10-problem/
I would die if everything went digital, nothing beats that fresh papery smell of a hard copy newspaper with Sunday brunch! My hubby and I can spend hours perusing through every page of our preferred sources (Herald Sun for him, The Age for me). Whilst I appreciate the immediacy of digital goss, it really does irk me when there is incorrect grammar and misspellings in what I am reading... I don't know about you but news just doesn't have the same credibility when there are typos xoxo
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog, very detailed. You questions got me thinking about my own news routine. I check my news digitally a lot, when I’m on my way to work, lunch break etc. It is a convenient medium, it’s hard to find the space on a full tram of train to spread out with a full newspaper and I often don’t have time in the mornings to settle down with a paper at the table. However I do have my moments when I like nothing better than to grab a newspaper from the shops.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you say about the “sloppy” nature of the standards of digital news writing. I also think that if this more dumbed down way of writing influences those to read the news that would not normally do so... could it be a good thing?
I’m not sure if it is something about this modern age, everybody can be a journalist if they have the internet. At the end of the day however, I agree that standards need to be raised.
I think the online platform will primarily be a vehicle for "hard news" stories, that state the "who, what where and when" formula.
ReplyDeleteThis service will cater for those people who need to be kept in the loop constantly. There is no replacement for well researched and well written feature articles and analysis pieces.
Personally I enjoy reading the paper with a coffee, its my down time during the day away from the computer screen.
It sure will be interesting times ahead with the digital news and printing futures of media companies. Who really knows how the industry will pan out?