How many times have you heard that print journalism is dying? That newspapers are so last century, magazines are in crazy amounts of debt and the news, as we know it, is generally coming to an end? Too many times, probably.
Last night, a panel of journalists gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to discuss the downfall of print and the rise of online and new media. The event, however, was billed as a discussion on the death of the news &-&- a tireless, but ever trendy topic that is as misleading as the day is long.
Ever since the invention of the Internet the world has changed. And those changes, some good, some bad, have forced us to evolve, for better or worse. But to say that the news is dying is simply just not true.
There is an insatiable thirst for current happenings. Sure, maybe celebrity news has been trumping actual, important news as of late, but it is still there. Not to mention, beyond the fact that there will always be a constant craving for news, no matter the kind &-&- whether it’s sports, celebrity, business or otherwise &-&- there is an incredibly important need for it, too.
What is on the local news channels tonight is in our textbooks next semester. What is printed in the morning is what we will be asked about in school next week. What is news today is history tomorrow. And we don’t see scholars and broadcasters debating the importance of history in the classroom do we? So why would the argument that the news is on its deathbed be relevant either?
In the future, it is almost certain that the news, and how it is delivered to us &-&- either by iNewspapers or iBroadcasts on our iNews handhelds or some other invention &-&- will change. But to imply that the content itself will cease to exist is ludicrous. To propose that journalists, or those in training to become journalists, are unnecessary or will soon be rendered useless is wrong. Instead, consider them and their positions evolving, not extinct.
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