MOTION #91: THIS HOUSE BELIEVES
THAT NEWSPAPERS ARE A THING OF THE PAST
Around 1440 German
inventor Johannes Gutenberg invented one of the most important and influential
inventions of the second millennium, the printing press, and it was from the
advent of this technology that the newspaper was born. Newspapers went from strength
to strength and they became an important part of democracy. George Washington
in 1788 stated that: “For my part I entertain a high idea of the utility of
periodical publications; insomuch as I could heartily desire, copies of ...
magazines, as well as common Gazettes, might be spread through every city,
town, and village in the United States. I consider such vehicles of knowledge
more happily calculated than any other to preserve the liberty, stimulate the
industry, and ameliorate the morals of a free and enlightened people.”
In the 21st Century,
however, with the availability of other forms of media, such as TV and the
Internet, the once highly important newspaper entered a state of significant
and rapid decline in many places across the world with readerships entering a
seemingly never-ending downward spiral. This has left many commentators to
suggest that newspapers are a thing of the past, Phillip Meyer in The Vanishing
Newspaper suggests, by extrapolation of current trends, that by the first quarter
of 2043 the newspaper industry in the US will be completely extinct. Others
suggest, however, that this is overstating the decline of newspapers, it could
be suggested that there will always be a demand for printed word despite the
current decline, for example in the UK on the 26th October 2010 the first daily
newspaper to be launched for 24 years hit the shelves and as of April 2011 the
“I” newspaper had a regular readership of over 160,000 2 suggesting that
perhaps that some demand still exists.
What is most certainly true of newspapers today is that they are, in the
developed world at least, losing their readerships, however, does this
necessarily mean that there is no longer a place for them in the modern media
landscape, are newspapers dead or are the rumors of their death greatly
exaggerated?
Pros
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Cons
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People no longer consume media in a linear way, people
prefer to pick and choose what news they consume. With the development of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs)
and more generally the internet people have come to no longer simply consume
media in a linear fashion, they take a more fragmented approach. In news
consumption people no longer want to simply have one newspaper with a vast
array of topics inside. They want to pick and choose which stories and
columns they consume, people now prefer to pull the content they want rather
than have it pushed on them. In a digital world the news consumer can become
their own editor and no longer need to rely entirely on old hierarchical
structures.
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The positive side of a newspaper IS the fact you have a
vast array of topics, which you would not usually consume. It broadens the
mind as you may often come across stories you never usually take notice of.
This opens up a whole new world of interest, whereas if people are given the
role of editor they would most likely simply choose to read what already
interests them and their channels of perception will become narrower. In addition
to this, newspapers are not necessarily linear. They do not have to be read
in a linear fashion, people can choose which stories they wish to read and
reject those they do not. Newspapers are far more flexible than they are
generally portrayed. Modern newspapers have adapted their design to increase
their consumption by the public.
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In the internet age immediacy is everything, newspapers
can often contain out of date information by the time they hit the shelves. In an interconnected global world whereby technology
allows us within seconds to communicate across the globe in a variety of
forms the newspaper medium becomes obsolete. In the time it takes to write,
edit, print and distribute a newspaper the events being covered may very well
have changed, when we have the technology to overcome this problem it seems
unlikely that newspapers will continue to exist because who wants to read old
news? An example of newspapers not
being able to adapt to changing events can be seen with the killing of Osama
Bin Laden on 2nd May 2011, the story broke too late for the morning
newspapers in the UK to be able to change their pages to include the story,
it was then subsequently reported a day late on the 3rd May.
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It is true that newspapers cannot adapt as quickly as
other types of media to breaking news events, however there are advantages to
having slower news. Reporting news events immediately as they happen often
leads to speculation as the bigger picture is often unknown by the
journalists, therefore having time to digest the given event can allow for
more accurate and detailed reporting rather than broadcasting facts which may
not be immediately confirmable, a longer time before publication then is
likely to result in more accurate, less speculative information. For example
many TV news outlets were reporting, when the first plane to hit the World
Trade Center on the 11th September, that it was an unfortunate accident. It
of course later emerged to be the work of terrorists.
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Newspapers cannot be environmentally sustained. Newspapers have no place in the modern media landscape
as they are not environmentally friendly, they are a waste of paper when
there are many other my efficient ways in which news can be disseminated. For
example a single annual subscription to the New York Times roughly generates
520lb of waste which equates to approximately 4.25 trees being cut down per
reader per year, when you take into account all the other publications that
printed throughout the world this equates to a lot of wastage of increasingly
scarce natural resources which could be avoided. Using digital tools to
distribute news is more efficient as you only use resources when the content
is actually required rather than the print media method in which the product
is printed when it may not be necessarily purchased and consumed.
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Newspapers do still
have a place in the modern media landscape; the environmental argument
against them is flawed, for example the Newsprint and Newspaper Industry
Environmental Action Group (NNIEAG) state that: “Recycled paper made up 77.4%
of the raw material for UK newspapers in 2010” so the claim regarding the
amount of waste newspapers generate is not actually as high as is being
suggested.
What the argument
also neglects to state is that electronic media is not entirely
environmentally friendly in itself, much of the power required not only by
personal digital devices but also the infrastructure needed to keep it
working does not on the whole come from renewable sources, whereas printed
media does makes greater use of environmentally friendly sources for its
production. A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers states that: “Forestry, paper
and packaging are among the most sustainable industries in existence.'“
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Newspapers are financially unviable. In the internet age, Newspapers are no longer
financially profitable businesses. They are struggling to encourage
investment and to survive in the long-term. Revenue is falling across the
three main streams available to newspapers: sales, advertising and subscriptions.
Sales and subscriptions are dropping as consumers move to the internet for
information (often the website of the newspaper themselves!) Advertising is
not as profitable either, as increasingly advertisers look to pop-up systems
on websites and buying space on search engines. Many newspapers have resorted
to cutting costs (firing staff, reducing the length of the paper) and raising
prices. Yet it does not seem likely that people will be willing to pay more
for less.
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This argument
overstates the situation. Newspapers are less profitable than they were at
their peak, but newspapers have been affected by other media ever since the
invention of the radio. Much of the evidence the proposition has raised
focuses on the Western World. According to the World Association of
Newspapers, more newspapers are being published than at any time previously.
There are strong growth markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.
The Middle East and Africa also sustain strong markets, though there is less
growth.
Furthermore,
Newspaper advertising is an effective revenue source. Advertisements in the
traditional print tend to get more attention from readers than on the
internet, because people read papers more intently.
Finally, some newspapers are actively engaging with the
internet by charging for premium content to their services. Even if they lose
some customers, this is made up by a net increase in revenue.
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Normal backlighted displays can be bad for the eyes,
however there are other digital technologies which address this issue, for
example Amazon’s Kindle e-reader using a technology called e-ink which
simulates ink on a page and requires natural light to be read. It could be
argued that the tactile argument is flawed, because if people did prefer the
tactile experience, newspapers would not be in a state of severe decline.
Furthermore the concept of what constitutes a better reading experience is
subjective. Shorter, more to the point text and the ability to hyperlink to
related pieces of content and access information in a non-linear way could be
considered a much better experience compared to reading long passages of text
in a linear fashion.
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Newspapers offer a
better reading experience than digital alternatives. The experience of reading from a newspaper is a far
better user experience than reading from a screen, reading from a screen for
long periods of time is not only bad for the eyes but quite often becomes
uncomfortable. A newspaper however requires natural light to be read and
therefore is not as harsh on the eyes. It could also be suggested that people
actually prefer the tactile physical experience of a newspaper or book over
holding an electronic device, a poll taken on the Guardian website found that
76.1% preferred books, i.e, a physical experience, over a digital one.
Video and audio-based advertisements placed online
around the text can also disrupt the reading process, a problem, which does
not afflict newspapers.
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Other types of media can produce equally, if not
better, pieces of journalism than newspapers: it’s more just a matter of
style. While many TV news outlets do often strive for immediacy in their
coverage they also feature special reports, such as the BBC’s flagship
Panorama program, which are much more detailed and can stand on an equal
footing with newspaper journalism. There are many newspapers, such as
tabloids with little journalistic quality. So, the matter of quality does not
come down to the type of medium being used, as this only affects style, it
comes down to the person or people behind the given output.
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Newspapers provide
higher quality journalism than other media. As newspapers are a slow medium, having a daily output most typically,
they can produce better quality material than other news sources which strive
for immediacy. Professional journalists and experts have time to consider the
issues and write well structured, coherent and highly informed pieces which
other types of media cannot compete with. A demonstration of the high quality
of journalism found in newspapers can be seen in the fact that quite often
newspapers set the news agenda for the rest of the day for other media
outlets. Perhaps most importantly, modern graduates of schools of journalism
still tend to favour working for newspapers as their long term career
ambition. This is because the working conditions tend to be far superior, as
is the regularity of payment and job security.
Those blogging in the online media note their treatment
as second-class outlets, long hours and poor pay. The best and the brightest
head to newspapers.
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As newspapers are funded by private companies they can
be accused of avoiding to publish information which may damage their revenue
streams, independent bloggers often do not have this issue so can be much
more free in what they publish which is ultimately good for democracy. In
addition to this journalists may vastly distort the truth in their reporting
in order to satisfy advertisers which seek certain demographics, whereas
independent bloggers do not have this concern.
A consequence of online freedom is of course that
anyone can publish anything but it should be down to the reader to decode
what has been blogged and make up their own mind as to its accuracy, it is
demeaning to suggest that consumers of news information are simply passive
consumers.
Professional journalists, even when based in an
official setup and with a code of ethics, are not entirely guilt free in
regards to publishing inaccurate information either, there are many instances
where false information has been published, for example many journalists
reported the potential link between MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella)
vaccination and Autism in a sensationalized way which did not entirely relate
to the research and which, as a result, caused a huge number of children not
being immunized. Perhaps the most famous recent example where journalists
have behaved unethically is the phone-hacking scandal in the UK.
To call blogs ‘parasitic’ is also insulting and unfair.
Many of them do their own research and cover issues not in the mainstream
media. It’s not unique to blogging to discuss the work of others, and indeed
many newspapers do so 3 So what’s the difference?
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Newspapers are a
more trustworthy source of information than independent bloggers. Online anyone can launch a blog and start publishing,
these articles could potentially be false, badly-researched or overly bias to
name but a few issues, this raises the question of quality control of information
online and its trustworthiness. For example a blog purportedly written by a
gay woman in Damascus trying to avoid state persecution over her sexuality
turned out to be a hoax, the identity of the blogger turned out to be
straight 40 year old US man living in Edinburgh.
As newspapers are most often subject to regulations
regarding what they print as well as being subject to market forces it is on
the whole unlikely that they will publish something that is factually
inaccurate, at least not with intent. Journalists working at newspapers are
well trained and more often than not sign up to voluntary ethic codes in
order to be accepted as trustworthy sources. Bloggers on the other hand can
publish without any formal training and for the most part stay anonymous,
which could lead to falsehoods being spread. Bloggers are often described as
“parasitic,” since they criticize “old media,” whilst simultaneously relying
upon it for the basis of their factual information. Yet Bloggers do not tend
to be the groups funding news reporters across the world.
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The argument that internet news tends to offer small
passages of text compared to newspapers is to be liberal with the truth, due
to the vast nature of the internet it offers a variety of styles and is
arguably more likely to provide longer passages than newspapers as there is
not space restriction as there is with newspapers which can only be a certain
size, due to advertisements and printing agreements.
With the ability to both search for and easily share
content via social networks, the argument that newspapers are better as they
prevent information overload feels weak because there are many ways in which
content can be filtered to ensure that both the news you actually want and
the style and perspective you prefer can be easily accessed.
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The balance of
analysis and relevancy is better struck by newspapers. The argument that internet news tends to offer small
passages of text compared to newspapers is to be liberal with the truth, due
to the vast nature of the internet it offers a variety of styles and is
arguably more likely to provide longer passages than newspapers as there is
not space restriction as there is with newspapers which can only be a certain
size, due to advertisements and printing agreements.
With the ability to both search for and easily share
content via social networks, the argument that newspapers are better as they
prevent information overload feels weak because there are many ways in which
content can be filtered to ensure that both the news you actually want and
the style and perspective you prefer can be easily accessed.
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While algorithms may filter out content which does not
normally appeal to a particular reader the internet itself does not block
access to any information, if someone wishes to seek out another view on a
topic it can be easily found by changing a search term. The idea that having
news personalized behind the scenes makes online news less trustworthy is a
weak proposition as the personalization constantly changes along with the
users unlike inflexible newspapers chasing particular demographics.
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The internet edits
what you can see without your knowledge. When you purchase a newspaper you know what biases they may contain,
getting news online can be more troublesome as services such as Google and
Facebook use algorithms which personalize content for you based on your
interest. This creates what is known as a “filter bubble” whereby online
services filter out news which may not be of normal interest to the reader,
the problem with this is that it is often done without the user being aware
of it, which clearly raises issues of trust.
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