Demise of the Written Media, Article Writing Example

Since the 1960’s we have witnessed a general decline in the written media and standard of journalism.  One of the big quality issues is the lack of space i.e.” you can no longer afford to send a reporter out for long periods and as such this creates both a lack of depth and quality of the story being reported.”   On a UK debate program called ‘Hard Talk’ the Editor of the New Yorker stated that despite these pressures they have resisted and still send our reporters on long term engagements. The Editor also cited the New York Times as being a quality Newspaper that was also trying to resist these pressures.

The concept of printed news has changed, historically prior to the 1960’s it was the hottest thing in town. The reports were a lot more enterprising and hungered for a really good news story.  This lack of enterprise and drive has disappeared from the current generation of reporters, hence a further decline in quality. The “larger Corporations like Newhouse Corporation have been swallowing up smaller local newspapers”. This has seen them combining such items as sports and political coverage. The result of this is that you lose individual viewpoints in favour of one big holistic viewpoint.  The end of local ownership in the daily papers is another contributory factor in the state of decline. It is contrasted to that of the current banking crisis where we have lost the services of the local high street or town bank. Nobody identifies  you as an individual any more and understands your personal business circumstances.  You are now at the mercy of unscrupulous bankers who are more interested in large Corporate profit portfolios.

So it is with the local newspapers, ” the family contribution has vanished and the large newspaper corporations just run it for the money and profit generation.”

The internet has not fully helped the literacy issue in the US and elsewhere. People are less interested in reading books and newspapers.  They prefer to see easy media on the TV of very variable quality.  Perhaps the BBC World News is one exception to this.  Younger people are also very rushed in their lives and want instant media on their cell phones,  E-Book readers and laptops.  The big Corporations like the New York Times are falling in line with consumer request but they will have to move towards a subscription base in order to make money.  Advertising revenues have dropped off and we have seen the likes of the Automobile industry, Grocers and Movie Theatres move away from Newspaper advertising.

There are still those that like to read and enjoy reading but the publishing world in the US is polarised towards high literate areas of New York and California. Books are undoubtedly expensive to produce and there will be a big push towards the cheaper production of E-Books and downloading the written word to E-book readers. As this will offer better audio visual effects it may well replace conventional books in the next 20 years. Equally newspapers may fall victim to technology advances in the internet.  Should this happen we will indeed be at a loss as there is something special about the tactile, sense and feeling of reading a book. Readers find an attachment in the written word and the feel of the book brings the reader closer to the author; a feeling that cannot be readily translated to electronic e-readers or computer screens.

“Magazines are generally suffering hard times and the news magazines are virtually collapsing.” ” Even Magazines like the ‘Atlantic Monthly’ ( 150-200 years old) have moved from paper to online coverage.” There is no doubt that the market is indeed changing.