This document discusses the rise of online news and its impact on traditional media like newspapers. It notes that younger generations now get their news primarily from digital sources online rather than print newspapers. This has contributed to a decline in newspaper readership and revenue. The document also discusses how new digital technologies like social media and microblogs have allowed news to spread faster, including during breaking news events. Overall, the document argues that online news will eventually replace traditional newspapers as the primary source of news for most people.

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Julia Albini
Dr. Tillman
Rough Draft 2
November 2, 2014
Make Room for the New Public Sphere
“News today is increasingly a shared, social experience” says the Pew Research
Center in their Project for Excellence in Journalism (Sturgis, 80). Social Media has its
own personality and function, as does the up coming generations beginning with our
youth. While two thirds of Americans propose they still prefer to acquire their news in a
traditional approach, over half of Americans believe traditional media will be a thing of
the past within the next ten years. Newer generations are setting the pace by reading their
news online; data confirms that newspapers are solely supported by people no younger
than 45 years old (29). Online journalism broadens debates of the public sphere by
offering more world news at a swifter speed at an inevitably cheaper cost. Digital media
constitutes an impact on society in multiple ways, one being at an educational level
allowing educationalists to edify beyond the awareness of news medias. The
contemporary changes occurring today in the public sphere are due to the new profound
expansions of news media boundaries created by the people of the United States. The
rise of online news will take over the traditional media such as printed newspaper.
The world is constantly evolving; it always has been, and it always will be.
Overtime we notice that laws and regulations are periodically modified; what is
considered good and what is considered bad change from generation to generation.
Education has evolved. Certain curriculums my parent’s learned in high school I was

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taught at earlier grade levels. Career titles and job positions have also evolved and are
continuing to change right now. As we slip into the digital era we leave behind past
methods and traditions to break in the new ones. Colleges offer online degree programs
that allow students to take courses directly from their computers and laptops. Stores have
made their merchandise available online, allowing customers to shop and make purchases
by the click of a button thus eliminating the time it would take to do so physically. Even
libraries, the most authentic settlement of books and journals, have turned to computers
and tablets to keep record of books as well as to locate them. What stays the same, for
the most part, through such evolutions is what defines these job titles. A student is still a
student when they take college level courses and earn a degree even if they aren’t
physically in a classroom, just as a librarian is still a librarian despite technological
means of running her institute. On the one hand, many will argue a journalist who
submits entries to online news sources are not considered real journalists. On the other
hand, the field itself is innocently advancing with technological times. According to the
Oxford English Dictionary online, a journalist is, “one who earns his living by editing or
writing for a public journal or journals” (OED 2014). This is the same definition the first
edition of the Oxford English Dictionary held for the term journalism in 1901. There has
been no alteration to this definition that limits the job position it holds to that of solely
pen and paper. A journalist will remain a journalist despite means of digital assistance.
Media consumption differs by age. A number of statistical records have recently
suggested that teenagers and young adults primarily turn to the Internet for news before
referring to a local newspaper or weekly magazine. On the other hand adults over the age
of 40 would instead choose traditional newspapers. According to the Pew Research

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Center’s 2008 news media consumption survey, the overall traditional print readership
declined 14% due to people switching to online newspapers (41). The Internet will
replace traditional medias because over time it is becoming more and more popular (not
to mention articles can be easily accessed by the click of a button). As shown in the Pew
Research Center’s statistics, over the last decade the percentage of newspaper consumers
has consistently fallen gradually. This heavy drop is due to the upbringings of newer
generations thus causing controversy in delivery methods of medias. The reason the
digital natives of upcoming generations are so infatuated with technology is simply
because that is how they are raised if not by the roots of their home, then by the support
of society. Digital immigrants, or those born before the digital world, are required to
adapt to these changes in order to keep up with the times. This introduces the idea and or
issue of digital literacy. Professional researchers of Education Media International say,
“In contrast to traditional media literacy where the main skills required are the capability
to access, consume, and interpret content, digital media literacy adds the dimension of
user participation; the ability to create, re-use, and disseminate content. A digitally
literate person is someone who can critically process media content as well as
communicate effectively using digital media.” (Potter,2010, Wartella, Lee, &
Caplovitz, 2002). With such advances skills and techniques why would people of newer
generations want to revert back to the rudimentary style of traditional media literacy that
limits them to only the interpretation of content, when the digital media offers a circulate
of content that takes thinking and conversing to the next level? Since the new media
demonstrates effective communication, it further more gives consumers an advantage,

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which is not only analytically processing media content, but also broadening
communication and interaction in new, beneficial ways.
Our country’s newspaper industry is suffering a deep financial crisis. Between
financial bankruptcies, inflict pay reduction, alternative web publication methods, and the
many reporters and editors who have been laid off, it is no wonder why newspaper
industries have been shutting down. Consequently, advertising revenues have fallen
because of this financial downward spiral. Newspapers have hurt like this before
especially during the Great Depression; during this time the technology of radio put a lot
of newspaper industries out of business, but was unable to shut them down for
good. Newspapers faced another rut in the 1960’s with the rise of television. At this
time TV networks outdid newspapers with national advertising. The printing industries
were able to throw themselves back in the game with the idea of chain ownership
creating one-paper towns. What makes the current financial crisis of today concerning is
that in recent months newspaper companies have claimed to have dug out of their
financial hole, but with mixed earnings. According to Suzanne M. Kirchhoff in her “The
U.S. Newspaper Industry in Transition”, major news groups in the second quarter of 2010
were profitable. However, unlike when getting out of their previous financial ruts, many
companies reported that their advertising revenues continued to decline during this period
(24). The cost of keeping up with print newspapers is no longer suitable for our
economy. The decline of traditional style newspapers has caused the beginning of a
new, different styled journalism around the country, easily abetted by low entry costs of
the Internet.

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Micro blogs such as Twitter have become tools to spread news fast in times of
crisis. Twitter is a popular site that draws in many users including, but not limited to
kids, adults, celebrities, industry leaders, politicians, and even the President of the United
States (Obama came in as number 3 in the top ten most subscribed users according to the
Research in Drama Education) (Buck 2011). Attention has been drawn to Twitter due to
events like the 2009 emergency landing of a passenger jet on the Hudson river in New
York. This calamity was, “first widely reported on Twitter when user Janis Krums sent a
photograph of the rescue from his mobile while on a ferry, scooping mainstream media
‘despite the fact that the headquarters of international wire services, major metropolitan
newspapers, and big time television networks are literally opposite the crash site … all
while rescue boats were still en route’” (O'Connor 2009, 3). This one tweet (having later
been retweeted and favorited) was able to notify a significant number of citizens before
mainstream medias had the opportunity to. Other advantages include hyperlinks such as
“trending topics” allow users to continually check the most popular discussed topics
being talked about at the very moment in which they click the link. This tool puts print
newspapers at a total disadvantage whereas they would have to send out a reporter to
retrieve information on the topic, have them put together a story, and most likely wait
until the next day to publish, print, and deliver their paper to consumers. Aaron Barlow,
author of The Rise of the Blogosphere supports the idea of online news with the tragedy
of 9/11. He said, “There, for the first time, I recognized the incredible power of the Web
as a source of information in breaking news situations” (Barlow 158). Indisputably, there
were newspapers and magazines and all kinds of print medias covering this tragedy after
it happened of course, however during the actual burning of the towers Barlow tells how

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he immediately joined a live online chat room after witnessing the twin towers fall before
him. He claimed, “I needed to say something” (158). Social discussion boards like AOL
chat rooms helped citizens realize what was going on and drew awareness to the rest of
the city, let alone country. Online news is critical in times of catastrophe for not only
spreading news, but also bringing people together.
Troubles in the newspaper industry affect our education system. The demise of
the daily newspaper has harmfully damaged the local discussions of
education. According to news journalist Michael J. Petrilli, professional journalists who
are specialized in covering education are asked to cover both K-12 schools, and higher
education, leaving them little time to dedicate to specific areas. These reporters are
“pushed to write shorter articles, leaving little space for in-depth reporting. And editors
want stories that are hyperlocal, at the school level, not missives about the latest school
board policies, or dry accounts of state regulatory actions” (Petrilli 2009). Limiting
reporters to short synopses of covered stories just to keep a faithful audience is another
factor contributing to the decline in newspaper readership. The web gives us a surplus of
information, and more importantly greater voices to be heard, far more news than a
single, short article in the paper can amount. It’s no wonder why people tend to turn to
the Internet for their news. The Pew Research Center claims overall newspaper
readership has dropped 5% within the past year (Petrilli 2009). Traditional newspaper
audiences have shrunk since 2008 losing their audience to new alternative sources such
as online news and cable television. Television was introduced in the 1960’s, and the
Internet in the 1990’s. If they both rake in nearly identical percentage rates in news

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audiences today, it’s only a matter of time before the Internet surpasses that traditional
news source as well.
Right now blogs cover all sorts of topics some including politics, fashion,
businesses, sales and health; the potential of blogs is deceivingly infinite. Now imagine
the power of blogs from an academic research standpoint. Valid forms of academic
scholarships are publications of evidence-based information. Blogs offer information,
results, and conclusions all in an exceptionally quick manner “New media outlets
provide academic researchers with an additional platform to make the research process
more available to the public before and after publication in traditional journals ”
(Efimova 2009). It has been reported by professionals that the use of social media has
helped researchers communicate commendably with different audiences. The technology
of today has incredible potential to improve research methods. The Internet allows
comment fields, and communication functions that offer open discussions for readers and
provide feedback on different content. In 2008 Noah Wardrip-Fruin, a computer science
professor at The University of California, Santa Barbara, sent the manuscript of a book he
had wrote to a group authored blog (Grand Text Auto http://grandtextauto.org), at the
same time his publisher sent his same book out for traditional press peer review.
Although Wardrip-Fruin used comments from both the blog-based and press-solicited
reviews for his publication, he found that the blog-based format encouraged more of a
collaborative and conversational discussion between the people who reviewed his book
online, and himself. Blogs that include well-structured messages that allow easy
conversations between readers compel them to look critically at sources, search out more

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information, and influence other practices. Online medias offer academic research the
opportunity to excel in their work and strive its full, unrefined potential.
Blogs have an advantageous concerted quality about them; they grant users the
opportunity to actively engage in other’s thoughts, perceptions, and insights in a
collaborative manner.
As most of the world continues to evolve in technology, a decent majority of
people will remain on the old school side of the spectrum, and with good reason to. In
James Randerson’s Use Newspapers in the Classroom, but with Care he argues the key to
constructing a valid newspaper is understanding what makes news and why. What makes
a story in the paper so eminent is that it was important enough to make it on one of the
limited amount of pages in the first place. Within in a restricted amount of pages,
newspapers cannot cover the overview of every field of human endeavor, but rather they
enlighten us with interesting and attention seeking articles. They are designed to provide
stories that will make readers pick up the paper. James Randerson argues that the articles
of professional science journalists are reasonably accurate. It seems as though when you
only have a limited amount of articles to pay attention to, you keep your focus on the
town, city or even country’s priorities, that is, school, politics, health, medicine, law,
etc. When we are open to endless articles on countless topics, our minds tend to
wander. Many will probably disagree on the statement that newspapers are limited
compared to the Internet, which offers infinite pages, links, and sources. However, with
so many contemporary statistics proving online news and medias to be useful and
effective in the education system, I find it hard to make sense of Randerson’s
deliberations. Perhaps as a way to deem newspapers a necessity of the digital world

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Randerson sought them to be a tool behind the desk of a classroom, but too much
research has shown how much more effective digital devices are for students.
The digital era we are just beginning to explore has great potential. Yes, it is
certainly different from the information age we are formerly leaving behind, but such a
powerful age as the digital is only the start of something new. Online news will allow its
audience - our society - the great opportunity to spread important news fast, access news
at a more suitable cost, and allow scholars and many career roles to reach their full
potentials. Advantages like quick publication methods and convenient access for online
users eliminates the time it would take for traditional reporters to retrieve information,
put together a story, publish, print and finally deliver their paper to consumers. The rise
of online news will take over the traditional media such as printed newspaper.

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Works Cited
Park, Sora; Burford, Sally. “I Longitudinal Study on the Uses of Mobile Tablet Devices
and Changes in Digital Media Literacy of Young Adults.” Educational Media
International 50.8(2013):266-280.
Wotzko, Rebecca. “Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and
Performance.” Newspaper Twitter: Applied Drama and Microblogging
17.4(2012): 569-581
Petrilli, Michael J. “Education Next.” Disappearing Ink: What Happens When The
Education Reporter Goes Away? 9.4(2009).
Powell, Douglas A.; Jacob, Casey J.; Chapman, Benjamin J. “Using Blogs and New
Media in Academic Practice.” Potential Roles in Research, Teaching, Learning,
and Extension (2011).
Sturgis, Ingrid. Are Traditional Media Dead? Can Journalism Survive in the Digital
World? New York, NY: The International Debate Education Association,
2012. Print.
Barlow, Aaron. The Rise of the Blogosphere. Westport, CT: Library of Congress
Cataloging- in-Publication Data, 2007. Print.
"Journalist, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2014. Web. 19 October
2014.