The Changing Media

It's generally accepted that the media is changing at a quickening pace, and the sheer range of responses to such adaptions, diversification's and reforms is notable. Jeff Jarvis, at Buzzmachine, notes the lament of a 'newspaperman' and editor, Steve Smith at the Spokesman-Review:

'No instrument will ever serve the public interest so relentlessly as the daily newspaper. New media will successfully distribute data and information. “Communities of interest” will develop around niche products. And while print newspapers will survive to serve a small, elite audience, they never again will serve the larger geographic communities that gave them life and purpose. Democracy will have to find a new public square.'

I'm not saying this isn't partly true, but I feel there will remain room for print newspaper in the media market. Tradition is hard to separate from, and there will continue to be a call for a physical object from which one can gain information. But there are advantages to - perhaps not their decline, and certainly not their replacement - the rise of the Internet as a form of information as oppose to newspaper. Firstly, all papers have a line, a necessary partisan viewpoint, and although news websites often do to, sitting at a computer allows you to be exposed to that many more viewpoints. Most people don't buy more than one paper. But many who use the Internet will look at multiple sites, often receiving a variety of views on the same story.

Secondly, it could already be argued that newspapers do serve 'a small, elite audience.' The circulation, especially of the broadsheets, is not extraordinary. Papers will respond to their readership, shaped by their demographic base. Accessing news and comment online allows you, again, to be subject to (if you wish) a much wider range of perspectives. This then leads onto the final point: in many countries, the media is far too close to the establishment. This not only goes for the state-funded and indeed state-controlled mouthpieces in Africa and Asia, but for much of the media in European states such as France. The internet instead can express alternative opinions, ideas and stories which are rarely seen in the exclusive light of the MSM.

It is then, far wiser for the mainstream media to adapt to the new forms of media, rather than lament the passing of the traditional aspects. The Knight Digital Media Centre's Michele McLellan highlights recent awards given to the most innovative (North American) papers, and more often than not this is awarding their use of new media. It's a new platform, with opportunities and changes and should be at the least used if not embraced by those in the traditions of the media environment.