Journalism and the Web

Newspapers used to make the news. Now, they are the news.

• Rupert Murdock• Cyclical trough• Decline in paid

circulation• Bankruptcy• Causal factors: economy

and internet

The Newspaper• Newspaper seen as a “living

text”.• Documenting history as it

occurred.• Changed very little since.

Disadvantages:• Updated daily.• Failed to keep up with

advancing society.• Yesterday’s news.

Irony

• Demand for news is high but people are not willing to pay for it.

• Comparable to the music industry.

Consumers of Journalism

• Free news on web.• Search engines changing readers’ habits.• Greater and quicker searching capabilities.

RSS Feed• Really simple

syndication or rich site summary.

• Frequently updated.• Feed Readers: iGoogle,

My Yahoo and MSN.• Constant breaking News

ticker• “Internet killed the

newspaper star”

Online Newspapers

• The Washington Post• The New York Times• Global access

• HTML does not spell salvation.

• Fees?

The New York Times

• Nytimes.com• TimesSelect• No to subscriptions• Who are the

competitors?

News Aggregation Websites

• Contains collected headlines

• Yahoo! News, Google News, Drudge Report, Huffington Post and breitbart.com

• Google Fast Flip• Anachronistic• Failures of print

Flaws

• “Data Smog”- Journalist David Shenk

• Volume overwhelming• Difficult to navigate• 80% contains

newspaper content• Newspaper industry

being ripped-off

Internet vs. Newspaper

• Issues of authority and reliability

• Who can we trust?• Blogs and Twitter vs.

pure Journalism• Death of reliable news?• Accountability

substituted by Bloggers

Citizen Journalism

• Good or Bad?• Yahoo! Buzz and Digg• Community based• Citizens and Journalists

collaborating

Future

• Meyer predicts September 2043• Perhaps sooner? • URLs are here to stay• Must embrace new media• Nick Bilton: “Paper is dying but it’s just a device.

Replacing it with pixels is a better experience.”

Hybrid Form

• Part-print and part-internet• AnnArbor.com• Limited printed editions• Social interaction

Death or Rebirth?

• Cannot simply copy-and-paste• Mobile devices like the iPhone• Interactive multimedia• Layout of Print• Minority Report’s e-Newspaper