The Future of Newspapers and Education

Newspapers;

“Five years ago, New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. predicted that in five years, newspapers would no longer exist in print form.” It is obvious that Sulzberger’s prediction was wrong, since newspapers are still alive and kicking. But, newspapers are losing money.

Technology has a big impact on today’s newspapers. “Gabor Steingart, Washington bureau chief for the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel believes newspapers are destroying their own business model by giving away content for free online but failing to find alternative sources of income.” That is true. How are newspapers supposed to make money if they are freely giving away their content online? Would you rather pay for a few pieces of paper, or hop on the internet and get the same news for free? The answer seems relatively obvious.

Mark Little states, “newspapers are putting their news on the web, which in the end undermines them because they lose revenue from selling subscriptions of the hard copy.” Essentially, news will be free. There does not seem to be any disagreement amongst most individuals where the news will end up; on the internet.

The internet has brought about many issues for the newspaper; the internet is quicker, cheaper and up-to-date. Readers are bypassing the newspaper for the internet, because it simply makes more sense.

What does this mean for the journalists? While some are scrambling to figure out how to re-attract the reader’s attention to newspapers, other journalists are ‘growing with the technology’.

“Allison Silver called online reporting ‘a way of restoring trust to the reader, a way of creating that bond between reader and reporter, because there’s a level of transparency on the Internet that isn’t possible in print.’ An Internet story is a continuous narrative, she said, citing links to information that allow readers to follow the reporting.”

This makes me wonder, how are we supposed to find the news in the noise on the internet?

Mike Little says that with the rise in online news that the news mission is to “sort the news from the noise, challenge prejudice instead of encouraging it, make good journalism good business.” Have journalists not always done this even before the internet? Yes.

Mark Little also mentions social networks, and how they have a big influence on today’s news. I do not believe that social networks will ever ‘beat out’ newspapers or online news from legitimate sources. I do not want to get my news from an individual on twitter. I want to get it from a legitimate journalist. As a journalism minor, I know how much time, research and consideration goes into a news story. Why would I go on twitter to get my news when I can go to the New York Times?

Mark Little says, “Nobody knows for certain…everything that people tell you about news will change. News has to future proof itself. News is dead the way it was, but there is an incredible future in it.”

I disagree; newspapers are not dead. Brian Steffens also disagrees. “If I’m to believe the national media, newspapers are dead or dying. What do they base that on?” It is hard for us to know where the future of news is headed, but the journalists inside of me feels that newspapers are not going away now, or ever.

Education;

Howard Rheingold in his article “Attention and Other 21^st-Century Media Literacies” says, “The developments brought about by technology allow for new possibilities. We are seeing trends in education toward distributed, collaborative models of learning.”

It is no secret that technology has had a major impact on our society. It has changed our way of life; socially, mentally and even physically. Another aspect of our world that is being changed because of the technology age is education. We are able to seek out information quickly on the internet. We can access knowledge with our fingertips.

This ‘education revolution’ has brought about online learning. You can receive a college degree through the computer; you don’t even have to get out of your pajamas. There are pros of an online education.

Ian Jukes gives four pros of online education in his article “From Gutenberg, to Gates, to Google”.
1. Enhanced access.

2. Complete freedom; being able to learn wherever the learner is at that moment.

3. Transparent communities; for them the technologies are transparent because they are completely comfortable with. It allows us to engage them in their comfort zone and native language.

4. Personal comfort; the problem with the current educational system is that there is simply not enough flexibility to customize learning to the needs of each individual. New synercative technologies will break these barriers because can empower individuals to learn at their own pace so that students do not have to be intimidated by the fact that others learn at a quicker rate or seem to know more.

4. Individual empowerment; power has switched from the teacher to the learner.

While all four of these ‘perks’ seem like a fine reason to switch to an online education, there are also negatives. Martin Ryder said, “To the extent that educators want to pursue the educational significance of new literacies, the very stuff of new literacies generates a host of issues.”

1. For the reader, a fundamental constraint has to do with the accuracy, veracity and reliability of online information.

2. Lack of social contact.

3. The fundamental characteristic of the Internet is that it cannot be controlled.

Do the pros outweigh the cons of on online education? At this point in time I believe they do. Individuals who were unable to take the time to travel to class can now get a degree from their home. Individuals who were uncomfortable in a crowded room of peers can now sit comfortably in front of their computer. Individuals who work full-time now have more power to decide on when they can learn.

But, my major concern is the social aspect. Our society is already becoming more and more socially ‘awkward’. We would rather make friends on the internet then in the real world. As humans we need to be social, and how are we going to do that if we can do everything from our homes?

I have taken two online courses during my college education. One semester at Broome Community college I was enrolled in seven classes. Five were on campus, while the other two were online courses. I actually really enjoyed taking the online courses, more specifically my creative writing class. I did feel like I had more freedom and personal comfort. There were things that I wrote and had to share with the class that I would have been uncomfortable with if I had been in front of them, face-to-face. At one point I highly considered completing my bachelor’s degree online, but there was one important thing I felt I would miss out on; the social aspect. My college friends and even professors have helped shape me into the person I am today. I have made contacts for future job opportunities and have made life-long friends. If I had instead received my college degree online I would have been a completely different person, and I feel I would not have liked who I would have become.

As Ian Jukes stated, “If we are going to adequately prepare for tomorrow, it’s critical that educational institutions at all levels begin to earnestly working together to share ideas, information & trends band through state and national infrastructure to provide the best, fastest and most efficient services – collaboration is the only way to compete.”

We have no idea what the future will bring for education, but one thing is certain. Our society will continue to seek out ways to bring knowledge to every single individual on this planet, and an online education might be a good start.