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| The Rocky Mountain News headquarters being torn down |
Whenever my parents ask me "what do you want to be when you grow up?" or, as it's been phrased more recently to account for my insistence that I'm plenty grown up, "what do you want to do when you're done with school?" I reply that being a journalist seems like a nice job. To this, I almost always get a reply along the lines of: "well, that profession is dying off now." With the ludicrously rapid proliferation of internet use across the world and the fact that the cable television is now not only an American staple but a perceived necessity, more and more people are choosing instant, passive methods of consuming news over reading a daily or weekly newspaper. While I won't delve into every reason why cable and online news are beating out the newspaper, the "death of the newspaper" (
as chronicled here) is changing the news landscape in very interesting ways. To many, the local newspaper is the most reliable source of unbiased news that covers a broad range of topics. However, with the newspaper being slowly phased out of existence, the types of news people have available to them is becoming limited. Sure, there are enough cable news giants to provide viewers with all the news that matters to them, but when even the network touting itself as "fair and balanced" has
a whole Wikipedia article about its various controversial biases, it is clear that the discerning news seeker need look elsewhere. As for online news outlets, it seems the only options are highly departmentalized sources or highly unreliable ones. An example of a news outlet that falls under both categories is the popular
perezhilton.com, a self-titled "Hollywood gossip blog" where every article is written by one person. For those who prefer their news not to be considered "gossip," it is still difficult to find an outlet that publishes news of all topics. While sources like
CNET and
Deadspin are most certainly reliable, they both focus on one facet of the news industry - technology and sports, respectively. The only online news outlets to deliver general, reliable information are the online departments of newspapers, ironically enough, though this is a news medium that has turned out to be much less profitable than its paper-and-ink counterpart was (after all, looking at an article online is free). This leaves news corporations like the New York Times forced to downsize or find a way to thicken the online revenue stream. Since the former is much easier than the latter, it seems as if the death of the newspaper is now becoming the death of news as we know it, a fact which I personally find a little bit frightening. What do you think? Where do you get the majority of your news from? How are you feeling today? Would you like a sandwich? Leave a comment below.
