Spring Break
Journalism ethics still count when news goes online
Patrick Fancher
Issue date: 4/6/09 Section: Forum
If you're reading this issue of The Daily Barometer, print journalism isn't quite extinct just yet. It's no secret that the newspaper industry has been suffering from significant losses of advertising revenue and rapid declines in dedicated readership. In 2006, newspapers made $49.5 billion in advertising; two years later, that number has dropped to about $38 billion, according to the statistics at stateofthemedia.org. Many major newspapers have decided to put less money into covering the news and have almost completely abandoned the selling of new subscriptions as a result.
The current economic struggle can take some of the blame, as newspaper classified ads have been hurt by problems like the real estate crash and the downfall of the auto industry. Paid newspaper classified ads have also experienced a dramatic shift of consumers opting to use free online classifieds like Craigslist. Many consumers are finding news information elsewhere on blogs and Web sites, like Facebook and Twitter, that serve as an aggregate of news stories taken from mass media sources and bloggers from all over the world.
Are these alternative media sources a fad or is there real cause for concern? Are newspapers destined to meet their demise by other technological trends, similar to the way the typewriter was permanently replaced by the personal computer?
Maybe the real question is where would we be without the benefit of newspapers? Do we ever take the time to realize how much of an impact they have on our lives?
For instance, without the excellent local news coverage provided by The Daily Barometer reporters, would we have known the whole story behind the life-threatening situation that ensued on 25th Street near our campus last Tuesday morning? Unless you're best friends with officers of the Corvallis Police Department, I'm guessing you would only have limited knowledge regarding the details of the story.
So the answer to my previous questions is yes, we need to be informed about the newsworthy happenings that take place in our own communities and around the world. The factual storytelling of daily newspapers is a necessity that we often don't realize is vital to our way of life.
The current economic struggle can take some of the blame, as newspaper classified ads have been hurt by problems like the real estate crash and the downfall of the auto industry. Paid newspaper classified ads have also experienced a dramatic shift of consumers opting to use free online classifieds like Craigslist. Many consumers are finding news information elsewhere on blogs and Web sites, like Facebook and Twitter, that serve as an aggregate of news stories taken from mass media sources and bloggers from all over the world.
Are these alternative media sources a fad or is there real cause for concern? Are newspapers destined to meet their demise by other technological trends, similar to the way the typewriter was permanently replaced by the personal computer?
Maybe the real question is where would we be without the benefit of newspapers? Do we ever take the time to realize how much of an impact they have on our lives?
For instance, without the excellent local news coverage provided by The Daily Barometer reporters, would we have known the whole story behind the life-threatening situation that ensued on 25th Street near our campus last Tuesday morning? Unless you're best friends with officers of the Corvallis Police Department, I'm guessing you would only have limited knowledge regarding the details of the story.
So the answer to my previous questions is yes, we need to be informed about the newsworthy happenings that take place in our own communities and around the world. The factual storytelling of daily newspapers is a necessity that we often don't realize is vital to our way of life.
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