The Past, the Present and Possible Future of the Newspaper Industry
Introduction
What will happen to the world and its inhabitants when the flow of information suddenly stops? Imagine yourself alone and trapped in a desolate island where no means of communication is possible. How will you communicate to the rest of the world? What is a modern society without current information and events? How will the people know what is “in or out” or what is happening around the environment? What is life without news?… without newspapers?
In this highly sophisticated times along with the presence of various innovations in technology and processes brought about by globalization and international cooperation, the role of news to daily living is undeniably relevant and indispensable. With news, everything is made known to the rest of human population by using the available vehicles of communication, such as television, radio, or newspaper.
From the development of new technologies and innovations, news reporting are now not limited to televisions, radio and newspapers. News via internet and mobiles phones through the method called PODCASTING are now prominent (Godwin-Jones, 2006). With regards to the new development especially the promising efficiency of PODCASTING in news reporting, the newspaper industry are threatened. In this paper we’ll be discussing the past of newspaper industry including the history of news reporting and journalism in which the said industry started. In addition, this paper will be also discussing the current status of the newspaper industry in Hong Kong, China and some countries around the globe and as to where the said industry may be heading in the near future.
The Newspaper Industry
The Past: History
In the 19th century, the creation of journalism industry was also the same era in which the newspaper industry emerges. This era (from 1801 to 1990 of the Gregorian calendar) is considered big changes in both journalism and newspaper industry. The revolutionary changes during the century affected the newspaper industry. Development in human beings by means of the introduction of technology in sending and receiving information created a faster communication as to compare with the past centuries. There are other enormous changes in journalism during this era. Among these changes aside from the introduction of speed at which people can communicate, development of photography, changes in newspapers’ functions, and significant contributions from notable people also occurred (Stovall, 2005).
Basically, the journalistic activity in the 19th century changes its nature from newspaper as organs of “opinion” to organs of “information”. This change resulted to expansion in the scope of coverage. Further, articles for newspapers were written in harsh and fearless tones but still aiming to report essential facts (The Washington Post, 2005). Continuing the tradition of the newspaper from “penny press” that presents stories focusing human interests written in simple language but vividly projected (Rego no date), and sports among a large and diverse audience expanded into bigger and progressive publications. Because of the historical obliteration of slavery in the nineteenth-century, journalism was used as a means of political tool for propaganda and several interests. Further, the middle of the century paved way to introduction of magazines with its specified form and target audience. With the conception of photography in 1893, it added to the significant progress of the said medium (Stovall, 2005).
Generally, the 19th century battle cry is directed to the total observance and proliferation of the concept of freedom of expression especially to the aspects of religion, race, and gender (Hutton & Reed 2002). With the individual purposes, journalism developed in various forms from the premature Black press, founded Jewish journalism, several Spanish-language newspapers as well as Chinese-American and Mormon publications. The rights of women to suffrage and peace promotion are also predominant during the said era. Another reason on why the 19th century journalism was divided in to several forms is the fact that many marginal groups of the society wanted to counteract and respond to the misconceptions, prejudices and false information brought about by the white press (Hutton & Reed 2002). Furthermore, two attributes of newspaper work that was introduced in the said era are “the leading article and special correspondence discussing foreign affairs, or describing war” (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature no date). Indeed, the war journalist is said to have been born, run his full course and expired in the second half of the century. In a particular instance, the war of journalists over the Democratic or Republican authorities in the United States is shown to be lacking with sense of objectivity, which only developed until the early period of the next century.
During the nineteenth-century where British newspapers dominated the world (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature no date), journalism was associated with various personalities like James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, William Randolph Hearst, and Joseph Pulitzer in the later part of the century. These personalities were made known because English journalism intentionally introduced itself in the international correspondence as a response to British ascendancy. Horace Greeley seems to be a safe person to head our list. This nineteenth-century founder and editor of the New York Tribune were described by Willard G. Bleyer as the person whose influence “has never been exceeded by that of any other American journalist” (Bovee, 1999; p.16). Meanwhile, there are other people who break out the circle. We can next add Frederick Douglass. This contemporary of Greeley wrote for many newspaper articles, but is probably best known for his antislavery publication The North Star, a weekly with circulation in Europe and the West Indies and also in the United States. Additionally, the journalistic muckraker Ida Tarbell deserves mention, especially for her controversial exposé of the Standard Oil Company that monopolized the oil industry in a nineteen-part. And as the world changes, the means of delivering news are no longer limited to newspapers, the development of magazine articles, radio reporting and television emerges. Basically, the series for McClure’s magazine that helped strengthen antimonopoly laws in the first decade of this century aided her distinction as one of the highly influential people of the 20th century. Finally, Edward R. Murrow, whose World War II broadcasts from London is a major contributory factor in establishing CBS leadership in the radio news field and who later brought the news documentary to television with his See It Now series (Bovee, 1999; p.16). Thousands of additional names could be possibly added to this list. Although the four mentioned may not be entirely typical, some can have little doubt that all of them would be identified as journalists; all are likely to be mentioned in any contemporary history-of-journalism book. They also remind us that news reporting are not limited by the variety of medium used in disseminating information but also the quality and content of news that journalists presented.
The Present: What the survey tells?
Currently, the newspaper industry are not only limiting themselves by publishing news in piece of paper, broadsheets and tabloids. They are now developing and making websites to publish news. In a decade or two, print newspapers may no longer exist. Why? A 1996 survey conducted by Levins, (1996) found that 45% of America’s publishers, editors and advertising directors felt their print publications would be harmed by Internet-based competition (see Figure 1). As seen in this past survey, more than 30% of those polled felt the Internet was the “top reason” print newspaper companies will be less healthy in the future. And now, in our current year 2009, newspaper shows continues decline especially the advent of new innovation in communication and technology. Despite of these threats, the content of printed news material which was considered reliable and credible is important.
In Hong Kong, there are several types of newspapers. Actually, Hong Kong is the home of Asia’s biggest English and Chinese language newspapers. In Hong Kong newspaper market, the highest shares are usually from the Chinese language newspapers such as Apple Daily, Oriental Daily News, and Sun Daily. However, the newspaper Hong Kong Economic Times is known for their best-selling financial newspaper. Apparently, The Hong Kong Standard, a free tabloid is also creating a name for their mass market strategy and widely-circulated English newspaper. The previous newspaper business have its rival known as the South China Morning Post which has the most paid subscribers among English-language papers in Hong Kong and nearly 10 times the total revenue from subscribers and advertisers of the Hong Kong Standard based upon a high-end focus strategy. As stated before, the content of any news is vital to its readers, thus according to independent surveys conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Ming Pao and South China Morning Post are the most trusted newspapers in Hong Kong. Despite of the strength shown by the newspaper industry in Hong Kong and other parts of the globe, the development of technology shows threat to their success (Stovall, 2005).
As seen in figure 1, it was reported that 44% of the executives felt that the new sorts of interactive publishing made possible by the World Wide Web would help their companies be more profitable (Levins, 1996). But only 10% out of the total 43% companies which have their digital presence said these electronic operations were profitable currently. The proliferation of cyber news indicates the importance of Internet presence among the mindset of news organizations. But the changes do not stop from the proliferation of cyber news over the internet, the new innovation called PODCASTING created another threat to the newspaper industry.
The Future: Newspaper Industry’s Podcasting
From the creation of Apple’s iPod as the main source in the world of digital music technology, lots of people have become aware of the possibilities to acquire various types of media through the internet (Godwin-Jones, 2005). With regards to the development of the information technology, the Internet became a vast realm of resources in which music and news files is one of the files that can be downloaded. Even though the iPod was made to transfer digital music as needed in the current society, the transferring of digital files has already been occurring for many years. Actually, in the late 1990s, a website called Napster was created. It is a peer to peer file sharing software in which many people around the globe notice the new way of downloading music. With this development and popularity of Napster, numerous ideas of ways to make file transferring easier were being programmed and tested. And one of the outcomes of this endeavour was the creation of podcasting (Hardenbergh, 2005).
What exactly a podcast is? Podcast is actually a way of obtaining digital files including files from news report from the internet or World Wide Web (Reuter, 2007). Digital files are in different forms. It could be in music, videos, multimedia or even in text. With regards to the development of new technology in the millennium era, podcasting popularity also sky rocketed.
Basically, files in the podcast can be downloaded through RSS or Really Simply Syndication or Rich Sit Summary. RSS has the capability to include more information than an mp3 file (Reuter, 2007). Within RSS files, the name, publish dates and descriptions are available along with the file. There is an aspect in RSS known as the aggregator which allows detection of new files on the internet. RSS updates automatically. RSS is sometimes known as a podcatcher that makes the aggregator searches the internet even while offline and upon finding an update to a web feed. And since the podcast updates automatically, the user can easily download the media file automatically with less hassles. The podcasting process is formed to make life for the user easier and less demanding (Villano, M. 2008). Conceivably what makes the entire procedure possible is not only the RSS technology, but also the scheme of web syndication which has been offered to users for a long time prior to the adoption of podcasting. Syndication refers to the ability for people to post their ideas or opinions on a webpage for everyone or subscribers to see (Villano, 2008). Without this technology and the original web logs, podcasting would not have been possible or may not have been invented at all. In general, podcasted media files are files that enclose more information than an mp3 and also consist of the technology allowing for automatic updates, keeping the user up to date with music, current news and talk shows. It is the ease surrounding podcasts that has made it a channel for not only well well-known news and talk shows, has also for usual people bored at home.
The creation of podcast are now playing important role in the society especially in the blogging and news reporting world (Villano, 2008). Blogging is the ability to record yourself on the computer and save it has evolved from a simple entertaining hobby into for some people, a new job (Anderson, 2005). Aside from regular people creating fame over the internet, many well-established individuals in society have begun to use podcasts as a way to converse with the public. There are some people in politics adopting the podcating practice to gain more popularity. Actually, John Edwards became the first politician to incorporate podcasts. In March of 2005, John Edward recorded his shows consisting of interviews, news and general banter and put it in a podcast to disseminate it all over the internet. In the summer of 2005, the White House finally attached the technological world by making podcasts available of President Bush’s weekly radio addresses (Hardenbergh, 2005). With this changes in the information world, it shows how powerful podcasting is in a very short amount of time.
In accordance to the popularity of podcast, some may argue that because of this development, not only readers of print newspapers, but also users of FM and AM stations or even TV series fanatics are declining. In one click of the podcast in the computer, podcast can now deliver latest news, music or entertainment that you are looking for (Hardenbergh, 2005). Well it cannot be completely confirmed but research done by eMarketer.com. However, their research tells that many people are starting to try podcasts. From this presentation, it is evident that the popularity of podcasting is growing and expected to grow. This was verified by Google itself in which the search queries of “podcast” doubled each day for awhile in 2004 and 2005. And as of today, podcasting continuously explode.[1] This means that many listeners of the radio are obviously using podcast for convenience. Bloggers and newspaper companies in cyber space also uses this in maintaining daily updates (Weinstock, 2008). Podcasting also brought help to businesses even in newspaper industry. Similar to any new idea, there must be a way to benefit from the innovation of the podcast (Hardenbergh, 2005). With a closer and in depth look into potential, the podcast can extend a very sensible business model both for profit for a company and within a company. Taking advantage of an innovation like podcasting can be very beneficial for a company or business or even to a newspaper industry who are now venturing in cyber space. Just as it is with many developing ideas and inventions, profit is inevitable or at least possible.
Conclusion
The newspaper industry is threatened by different changes in our society. From its history, the credibility of news reported in daily broadsheets and tabloids threatened their proliferation. The creation of coloured magazines also competes to their success. The development and creation of radio and televisions also threatened the newspaper industry. And now the advancement brought by the internet and the innovation called PODCASTING also shows impact to their development but still the said industry may survive in the future. By reviewing the Chartier’s Change model, the newspaper industry may still be alive in the future. In Chartier’s model there are six steps in the change process:
Development is always certain. The transformation of print newspaper into digital format has altered the entire landscape and continuously develops new trends and future developments that will potentially affect news practitioners and the people. This transformation and its following effects becomes a source of pioneering grounds for stakeholders. News media is everywhere. It is not limited to a single location. For news consumption, the impact of new technology to people is significant especially on the ways on how information are transferred. The impact of news media is perceived to be positive. It creates big responsibilities and changes on the part of media and communication industry. However, it is also considered that there will be an increase in the capital funding and investment provided that technology infrastructures swiftly change over time. The production and dissemination of news information involves selection and interpretation of news regardless of the medium. The power of the media comes from their ability to select what information is going to become news and what is not, the latter material falling well away from the public purview.
References
Anderson, L. S. (2005). Podcasting: Transforming Middle Schoolers into ‘Middle Scholars’ An Innovative Seventh-Grade Teacher Has Turned Her Students into Expert Podcasters by Integrating the New Apple Technology into Her Daily Curriculum. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 33(5), 42+. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5013571038
Bovee, W.E. (1999). Discovering Journalism, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.
Godwin-Jones, R. (2005). Skype and Podcasting: Disruptive Technologies for Language Learning. Language, Learning & Technology, 9(3), 9+. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5011372410
Godwin-Jones, R. (2006). Emerging Technologies: Tag Clouds in the Blogosphere Electronic Literacy and Social Networking. Language, Learning & Technology, 10(2), 8+. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5015545456
Hardenbergh, M. (2005). The Media and Globalization. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 49(4), 519+. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5013910788
Hutton, F. & Reed, B.S. (eds.) (2002). Outsiders in 19th-Century Press History – Multicultural Perspectives, Popular Press, University of Wisconsin.
Levins, H. (1996). “Online Gloom in Newspaper Offices: Publishers’ Single Biggest Concern: The Internet. Editor & Publisher Interactive News, viewed 16 July 2009 from <http://www.mediainfo.com/>
Rego, M. (n.d.). “Celebrity Shocker!” Ryerson Review of Journalism, viewed 16 July 2009 from <http://www.rrj.ca/issue/2006/summer/632/>
Reuter, J. (2007). Current Science & Technology Videocasts. The American Biology Teacher, 69(8), 492. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5028582984
Stovall, J.G. (2005). Journalism Who, What, When, Where, Why and How, Allyn and Bacon, New York.
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907–21) (n.d). Growth of Journalism, vol. XIV.
The Washington Post (2005). Journalism Repeating Itself – Editorial, April 25.
Villano, M. (2008). Building a Better Podcast: Everything You Wanted to Know-Plus a Few Things You Hadn’t Even Thought to Ask-On How to Best Bring the Technology into K-12 Curriculum. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 35(1), 30+. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5025289958
Weinstock, J. (2008). Sloganize Me! an Online Podcasting Tool Doubles as a Portal to Self-Rebirth. T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education), 35(1), 6. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5025189023
[1] From http://www.podcastingnews.com/tag/podcasting-statistics/
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment