Recently I’ve gotten really into reading my news online. I click on the little newspaper icon on Firefox, and I get links all of the important news stories, as judged by Google. They come from various media outlets, such as the Washington Post, the New York Times, or less widespread papers such as the San Jose Mercury News. Usually when I’m in college I don’t have the time or effort to pick up and read a newspaper, so these online news sources are keeping me much more informed than I would be. However, I wonder what effect they might have on both the news industry and news reader’s habits.
Now that news can easily be aggregated into one convent source, what happens to the print newspapers? I assume that, like radio after the advent of television, print newspapers will not disappear but will find a new niche. But what will that niche be? And furthermore, if any newspaper can easily be accessed anywhere in the world, will there still be a need for the many different newspapers that exist today? Would many newspapers be replaced by news sources such as Associated Press and Reuters that readers can access directly online?
But more importantly than the changing function of newspapers might be the changing ways that readers find and prioritize news. When I read the print edition of the Washington Post, I first see the articles that the educated newspaper editors have lain out for me. In contrast, when I use Google or another website to organize news for me, it may simply give me the most popular news stories those other users are currently reading. Are those stories as educational or informative as the articles that a newspaper might have?
It seems like this newspaper example is another example of another media source that the internet could change or render obsolete, such as television, record stores, or video rental stores. It really makes my wonder what the state of media will be in ten years or so.