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| Creative Commons photo by Kevin Lim |
Welcome to a new school year! And welcome, young journalists, to Waldsmith's Dispatch, our journalism class blog. I'm looking forward to get the blog up and running again because it works as a great tool to accompany and emphasize issues covered in class, as well a place to share your thoughts and comments. Some of the posts will be "greatest hits" of earlier posts I have created in the past, while others will be brand new.
We are beginning the semester by examining what makes news and exploring newspapers and news websites. The principles of what constitutes solid journalism do not change. However, newspapers are struggling and adapting to technological change, while news websites are also striving to find ways to become more profitable.
Consider this quote from Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, which was recently sold to the founder and CEO of Amazon.com:
"Think of a newspaper as a supermarket of material. I work in the meat department (national and foreign news along with sports and crime) as the public is becoming not just more vegetarian (health, science, style and human interest and animal stories) but also more practical (local news, home furnishing, education, entertainment). The Internet has joined radio and television in being first with news, but Web sites and cable are providing more of what I call 'junk food'— news-gossip and opinions rather than facts."
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ReplyDeleteIn response to Pincus' quote, I do agree that 'junk news' has been taking up more and more of 'news' programs on television, and on websites. I think this has led to people becoming confused and mislead about what real, important, newsworthy news really is, and not caring about events, people, and conflicts that can directly affect them. The rumored name of Kim Kardashian's baby will not directly affect people like a security threat on the U.S., or the election of new leaders, yet people hear more about it. With regard to the selling of The Washington Post to the founder of Amazon, Jeffrey Bezos, I was surprised that such a prominent newspaper was doing so badly that they felt they needed to sell, and that it was bought by a man who had no experience with running a newspaper. I think Bezos' buying of the newspaper will be a positive thing, even if it is sad that the Graham family is losing it after so many years. Bezos has experience with technology and is an innovator of web design and businesses based on the internet. Before being sold, the Post faced competition and pressure from growing Internet and digital websites and news sites. Maybe Bezos' experience and knowledge in that area will be able to build the Post back up and help it regain its former status.
ReplyDeleteI think that Bezos buying the paper isn't necessarily a bad thing, neither is the Internet becoming a more prominent part of it. There are ups and downs to everything but this could be best for the paper.
ReplyDeleteI believe the quote by Pincus is very accurate. People are not only looking at the big headlines in newspapers, but they are also looking at entertainment and local news. Just like people do with real junk food, they indulge in celebrities and gossip. My favorite place to go for news is clickondetroit.com. I watch Local 4's newscast everyday, and it is nice to go and look at news stories that weren't featured on the news. For fun, I go to hypable.com, which is kind of like an entertainment website. They have stories about everything from author interviews to reviews on television shows; I also enjoy interacting with people in the comments and giving my opinion on a news story.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, Walter Pincus was very right in his analogy. It seems that recently people have been less interested in what is happening in the world around them and more interested in stories that directly affect themselves (health, their own entertainment, etc). As frivolous news supplies the population with endless entertainment, less attention is being paid to what most people consider "real news". As for the articles, I think it is kind of sad that The Washington Post had to be sold, especially after being owned by the same family for many decades. I also find it sort of ironic that the (seemingly) only way to make The Post more successful was to sell it to a man who works in the industry that is very possibly the cause of dwindling newspaper sales. I am not saying the sale was necessarily a bad thing though; Bezos can certainly help the paper in many ways. He could bring a new, more appealing face to The Post. Hopefully, this change will bring success, in whatever form, to the paper.
ReplyDeleteIn response to what Pincus said about consumers are increasingly preferring a more "vegetarian" news diet, over many other types of news. This is leaving more and more of the younger generations craving information about their favorite celebrity over political, scientific, foreign, national news and etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Pincus about how people are turning away from newspapers and towards the Internet and social media. Personally, I hardly ever read the newspaper because, I watch the news on TV, have news apps, and get news alert texts on my phone. However my grandparents read their paper on a daily basis. I think this shows how to younger generations a newspaper is obsolete because, of the various outlets of communication. To older generations, like my grandparents, the newspaper is their main way of staying current. This recent change will show the strength of the newspaper. If they are able to reinvent themselves to adapt to the change, they can come out very strong. The evolution of the newspaper is key for survival.
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ReplyDeleteWalter Pincus' quote, in my opinion, was completely accurate. 'Junk news' is becoming something that people are wanting to listen to on the radio, watch on TV, and read online. Celebrity gossip columns are getting more attention than important news that needs to be heard. People are getting caught up in the biggest gossip story rather than being informed about what's happening in other countries or even in their city.
ReplyDeleteI found the second article about newspaper technology extremely interesting. I think that if The Washington Post could make a customized digital newspaper for everyone, it would change the way people read newspapers. People would be able to find what they wanted to read quicker, and be able to read more about topics that interest them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think it is true that the internet has less important information and more opinions than newspapers. The internet has much more room letting journalists write about topics that might not be in a newspaper.
I think that the quote from the Washington Post was very interesting because it made a good point. Many news articles including "junk food" such as gossip are now found on many news and magazine websites. I do most of my news article readings on the Internet so I see much less real news like national news, sports and crimes than if I were to read more from the actual newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Walter Pincus had to say. It's completely true that people are turning more to sites like Yahoo now instead of watching the news on television. Many of the articles featured on such sites are pieces of "junk food". I prefer to get my news from actually watching the news on t.v, as well as reading the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article. I often see gossip and opinions on online newspapers. I also think that more and more people are changing to online sources of news and information instead of traditional newspapers. I also prefer to get my news from an online source such as Yahoo. I prefer to get my news here because it is easy to access and cheap.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is, our society is becoming technology based. Therefore, it only make sense that news should begin to move to the Internet because that's the first place people tend to look for information. As long as Bezos doesn't begin to change the values of the Washington Post, I don't think it's a bad thing that he bought it. Since he's the owner of Amazon, the Post now has a whole new potential audience to reach through advertising.
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