Comments on: Journalism Today

By: Justin Skovholt

Justin Skovholt — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:55:32 +0000

Your last comment (Amy) poses an interesting and depressingly true point. But novel writing is not near a dead art. Consider that one rarely buys a book without reading part of it, reading a review, hearing about it, or at least having previous (and good) experience with the author. Anyone can write a novel and put it on the net, but just like online news blogs, this doesn’t ensure anyone will read them.

Digital text opens many more consumers to authors. Your text could potentially sell millions more copies and get wider exposure (in addition to earning you more money) because it can reach so many more people. Books will be cheaper for readers, as it costs hardly anything to store a book online for download but costs more to print, bind, and ship books to stores.

I also hope printed text might die out (although I suppose at some point it probably will), but that day is a long way off. Even if it does, there will always be a demand for good novels, whether in paper form or in digital print.

By: Amy Heaton

Amy Heaton — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:30:43 +0000

I wholeheartedly agree. I did not consider that portion of written art when I wrote this piece, and I think that you raise some eccelent points.
The computer was an excellent invention. It has made life more effitient in many ways. But in our quest for efficiency, I feel that there is something lost in between, like your example of the pleasure of curling up in bed with a nice book being ignored.
Also, I personally think that the Nook is a bad idea, and that the day we read, communicate, watch, and practically live through our electronic devices will be a very sad day. Wait a second… hasn’t that kind of already happened?
Thank you for your comment.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:36:36 +0000

It’s not only physical newspapers that are waning; novels are increasingly being published online instead of on paper. Some people have gone so far as to call book-writing a “dying” art form. Such comments are pretty devastating to aspiring novelists, myself included. In the past couple of years, there have been a slew of new products which allow one to download and read books on computer-like devices. More and more people have begun to sell their works through the internet. While this will make the access of new books easier, there will also be no way to distinguish the “good” books by serious writers from books that should or would not have been published if looked at by an editor. Freely-written novels will be most likely be packed with grammatical errors that one doesn’t want to put up with when trying to relax. Also, I don’t think that I could ever get used to curling up in bed with a nice piece of hardware. Computers are wonderful education and “equalizing” tools, but often they end up making our lives way more complicated than they should be. I,for one, hope that people continue to see the value of the printed (not just digital) word.

By: John Benson

John Benson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:25:46 +0000

“Because anyone can go and talk about something on the internet, people who may simply be ranting hold the same weight of those who go out and work hard to find the facts.”

I don’t think this is necessarily true. With more information accessible to us, we simply need to develop new ways to filter it.

I’ll give an example that I learned on Tuesday during the Statistics field trip to the World Bank. They have a partnership with Google that gives priority to their reliable data. Search “united states gdp” to see for yourself. This is just one instance of what Google is doing to solve the problem. http://www.google.com/help/features.html

Here’s an unlikely way to weight information: Twitter’s “Retweet” feature. It allows you to expand your network of information providers–the people you are following–based on your current network. If I trust the Washington Post (http://twitter.com/washingtonpost) and they Retweet something from Arkansas Bob, now I have an opportunity discover a new reliable source. There are similar features embedded in nearly every blog and social network.

Everyone is not equal on the internet. But now I get to decide what sources are trustworthy, as opposed to some media conglomerate deciding for me.

By: Amy Heaton

Amy Heaton — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:49:38 +0000

You raise some interesting points, but because anyone can go and talk about something on the internet, people who may simply be ranting hold the same weight of those who go out and work hard to find the facts. It monogomizes journalism so that everyone is equal, but when you think about it, the quality of writing isn’t always on the same level.
But as to finding out about events moments after they happen, that is one of the positive things the internet has brought. I am not saying that the internet is all bad, but rather that people need to realize that what it has brought isn’t all good.

By: Justin Skovholt

Justin Skovholt — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:52:04 +0000

Well written, and I agree that the time of print media is coming to an end. However, I wonder if this is such a bad thing. With the advent of the internet, expression has become much more available to anyone, rather than those select few with writing spots on a newspaper. Data can be compiled much more quickly and efficiently. News worldwide can be read anywhere minutes after the event takes place. While some smaller circulations will inevitably (and have been) dying out, I’d tend to think this is a necessary loss in a period of advancement for news media.

By: Amy Heaton

Amy Heaton — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:56:15 +0000

That would be the worse case senario. I think what will end up happening is that there will only be the big newspapers left, and smaller community newspapers that have been around for a hundred years will cease to exist. That is the saddest part for me.
Thanks fo the kind words!

By: Devin Doherty

Devin Doherty — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:17:29 +0000

Nice commentary. This: “It is a sad truth to face, but more and more newspapers are going down.”

Yeah it’s sad, soon, there will be no newspapers left.