As you may have realized mere seconds after they were uttered out of a young Bod Dylan's mouth: "Times are a changing." What he forgot to mention was how rapidly they are changing, how they would affect the society we live in, and how they would ruin and save lives within the same moment.
It's nothing new to hear about how technology is changing the way the world works. How video killed the radio star, on-line music stores killed the record store, and how on-line media is currently digging a deep grave for print journalism.
I won't try to pretend like I'm not a part of it. The words I write are part of the dirt being thrown on top of the newspapers lifeless corpse.
Clay Shirky mentions in her elaborate essay on the demise of newspaper, that "When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place."
Are we in the midst of a revolution? A wrecking ball with too much force to stop?
Who will miss the newspaper the most? What will homeless people cover up with while they're sleeping?
Is the death of the newspaper a pointless death or an inevitable evolution? As more Joe the plumber's pick up their figurative pen and stain the pages of the vast on-line paper, when does journalism turn from a well crafted art-form into a opinionated free-for-all?
When it all comes down to it, I have faith in our technology. Even as the paper begins to dwindle, I feel that something unimaginable will bloom. I feel like we are on the cusp of something beautiful. I feel like they must have felt right before the first newspaper was printed.
till next time-
NickT
I enjoyed your take and opinions on the demise of the newspaper. You are completely right, times are changing, and with the newspaper being 100+ years old, I too think it's time to evolve to the next step. I like that you used the example "video killed the radio star," and "online music stores killed the record store" since this example falls right in suit. Electronics killed the paper...
ReplyDeleteYou posed a lot of questions in your blog; I would have liked to have heard your answers to more of these questions. Were you a regular newpaper reader where this change would effect you? It seems that you are open to this change and are excited to see how everything turns out. I agree that this switch is an exciting one that will allow the public to let their opinions and creativity run wild, which I welcome with open arms.