Newspapers have acted as the primary source of news across the world for centuries. They stand as symbol a of journalism itself and are associated with the most quality news in the industry. Yet across the UK and indeed the world, newspapers have been experiencing a noticeable decrease in popularity as sales have steadily dropped since the late 90s hitting the industry and those within it hard. In most recent years especially, newspapers have been forced to lay off countless journalists just to see profit and post pone death. Indeed, recent trends in market would suggest the future of newspapers does not look very positive.
According to research conducted by the ‘Audit Bureau of Circulations’; ‘While British Newspapers such as the Times may have enjoyed a steady 726,349 newspaper sales a month in 2000; it’s readership has now dropped to 617,483; a drop of over 100,000 readers a month, and it would be fair to say newspapers such as the Times are the lucky ones. ‘Popular’ and ‘low brow’ red banner, the Sun, has experienced a readership drop of over 400,000 a month since 2000. It’s also important to note that these falling rates in newspaper sales, are not exclusive to the British isles. American newspapers such as the New York Times have also reported a fall in sales as well as those in Europe and Asia.
Unless people in general just aren’t as interested in the news today as they were ten years ago, the figures from this research would suggest that a vast amount of the general public are now getting their news from a new and more appealing source, which in many ways is exactly what they are doing.
The ‘Internet’ or, ‘World Wide Web’ as it is sometimes known came into existence in the 1980s but use of it by the general public did not become really popular until the 90s. The internet today is now extremely accessible, as anyone within walking distance to one of the millions of internet cafes or a simple laptop or even mobile phone, can now ‘surf the web’. The internet has affected society far and wide. Similar to the ‘East India Trading Company’, railways, the telegraph, or the telephone in their day, the internet has changed the face of the world. If pre- mentioned company brought about globalisation for countries, the internet has brought globalisation to the people themselves. Almost every single individual in the world has access to the internet and so in theory, everyone can contribute to ‘the death of journalism either by using it as a new primary source of news, neglecting newspapers, or by creating their own news feed heightening competition with the industry.
The internet holds many advantages over other sources of news perhaps explaining why internet journalism is fast becoming the most popular news medium both for retrieving and receiving news. Every second, an unfathomable amount of data is uploaded to the internet every single second, thanks to websites such as word press, and youtube that rely on user generated content and legitimate news sites such as bbc news and online newspapers. With the internet, publshing is easier then ever.
Newspapers even before their decline in popularity were quite exclusive when it came to who and what was published in them. This is because many newspaper have a target audience to whom they wish to appeal to meaning certain news was highlighted more then others as well in a certain style and certain angles taken. This is to help ensure their continuation and survival. Because of this the most many new journalists could ever hope for was to have letters published on the comment pages as it was difficult to break into and is possibly another reason why they are in decline today.
Looking back at the impact of the internet on newspapers and journalism as an industry, in many respects the internet is the liberator of the people by given each individual the potential to voice their opinion to the world. Citizen journalism is the act of journalism practised by an individual without extensive experience or training in the field. The first use of it was in newspapers or magazines when photographs were sent in by the public. Today however, citizen journalism has entered a completely new generation. Now anyone, with access to the internet has the ability to be a published journalist through blogging. Blogging is now the most common form of citizen journalism in the world with literally millions of individuals practicing it. According to Biz Stone, co- founder and director of the popular blogging website ‘Twitter’:
“Blogging kick started a revolution in hyperconnectivity…we now know that the potential exists for everyone to have a voice”
The act of blogging is the collection of information or data on a space of the internet known as a blog. There the user known as a ‘blogger’ can write whatever he or she wants to be viewed by everyone on the internet. Blogging exists in many forms with many sites offering people the ability to blog. On the video hosting site ‘youtube’, individuals can create video blogs and on ‘wordpress’ videos, text and sound bytes can all be used to express oneself freely, and for no fee. In many respects blogging is a good thing as it gives people the ability to document current affairs and news, communicate with each other, express themselves more freely promoting democracy, and offering a genuine insight into everyday occurrences. This offers users millions of different views and perspectives, and offers documentation of how people lived for future generations to study. A downside to this however is that with so many people blogging, it’s difficult for an internet user to differentiate between quality blogs and those that are not, and even harder for a blogger to become well known. Most popular blogs are those written by celebrities either in journalism, or identified as one in another field. Most people view these blogs simply for entertainment purposes,or a supplement to news obtained either via newspaper or online new sites. However, there are journalists in the industry that believe citizen journalism is in effect stealing their readerships which is a worrying thought as news often found on a blog website is unregulated and so open to manipulation, bias and opinion.
Because many those who practice Citizen journalism through blogs are laymen and the work goes unregulated, it means that news written by them does not need to meet professional standards and in most cases does not. When writing for a publication or company, journalists are obligated to follow a code of conduct and any piece of work that does not abide by the rules of it shall, or should be, rejected by the editor of the company. This means that those who rely on citizen journalists solely for the purpose of news are in danger of being mislead, whether it be the intention of the citizen journalist, or by mistake. However, one must remember that blogs are foremost used for entertainment. Although there are blogs that offer true, and intellectual insight into current affairs the vast majority of them do not and should not be considered real news.
The internet is also capable of supplying to the it’s users twenty four hours news, a feat that newspapers cannot match. In her book; “Qualitve Research in Journalism” Sharon Hartin fully and effectively explains its still growing significance to 21st century journalists and the transformation of news it has brought with it. She states that:
“Shocking world event can now be viewed almost at the instant they happen- then observed as they continue to develop”
The twenty four news cycle that was first introduced by cable news channels in television and is yet another supposed woe for the professional journalist and indeed newspapers. In the twenty four hour news cycle, newsrooms and news itself moves at a much faster pace. Rather then stories being presented as news on a daily basis as you would find in a newspaper or regular news broadcast, twenty four hour news runs on a twenty four hour basis, processing stories as they come in and presenting them to the public as soon as possible. In theory, it never stops. Whilst from a consumer point of view, twenty four hour news is a good thing, it is yet another factor leading to the demise of newspapers as demand for twenty four news heightens, newspapers being left behind as they are often a day to late in reporting.
Another contributing factor to newspapers demise is the growing realisation that news in no longer localised any more. With the internet also came the a for mentioned ‘globalisation’. Although small and isolated communities do exist, a great majority of the worlds populations live in cities and other urban areas. Localised news no longer has meaning or relevance for many people as everywhere is now interconnected via the web and newspapers cannot communicate on a global scale as the internet can.
Seeing the potential to broadcast news and perhaps, some newspapers set up websites in the 90s, one of the earliest being The Guardian newspaper which founded the Guardian Online in 1999. In this way the internet has created a whole new breed of twenty four hours news. Now news articles can be written, edited, and published even quicker then twenty four hour broadcast on cable television can. Many newspapers now have two newsrooms, one for print journalism and the other for online. Although the online websites make profit from online advertising, it is not enough to compensate for the loss of revenue from falling newspaper sales and so if, it would seem if journalists and newspapers wish to survive as suppliers of news, they must change how they broadcast it; making a transition from print to focus more primarily on internet news- the more popular of the two mediums. This of course does not solve the problem of funding; though recent developments in ‘News Corp’ offer a possible solution.
As of August 09, the billionaire media baron, Rupert Murdoch, head of ‘News Corp’ announced he was planning to begin charging for access to the new sites The Times online, The Sunday Times online, The Sun and News of the world; a move he believes will save the industry and ensure the future of quality journalism and the journalists who practice it. This certainly is a possibility as ‘Wall Street Journal’ has already proved subscription fees to news and articles can be successful. However, Jason Whittaker in his book ‘Web production for writers and journalists’ may disagree. In the book he offers a useful insight into the idea charging for online content puts forward, the following theory.
“The idea is that at present , users may be unwilling to pay for content, but when a fifty- year old database becomes a fully searchable archive, the text and graphics we tend to treat as ephemeral are suddenly given a new lease of life”
There is however issues that first must be addressed before all of journalism conforms to this. Just as musicians and film makers struggle to prevent piracy of their property so to, would journalists and their news. It would be very possible for an independent journalist or indeed another company to pay a subscription and then copy and upload the news data a offer it for free, essentially stealing it. However, should system appear that would solve this problem, online websites such as the Guardian online could well become the new, central, and only home of the Guardian.
Whilst newspapers do still sell, trends suggest that they are to be it quite frankly, a dyeing medium. Being seen as the traditional source of news simply isn’t enough to guarantee its survival as younger generations now turn to the more practical and in many ways superior internet, that can offer twenty four hour news, in text, audio or video form and at any time or anywhere. It’s simply a case of technological triumph over an older form media, much in the same way the dvd replaced the video tape.
