May 12 - Journalism & Internet

Last Tuesday's class questioned the future existence of newspapers in a world backed by the internet. Newspapers, however, are timeless and classic. I find it very hard to believe that the internet will replace print media because there is something very tangible about it that one does not receive from online publications. Some of my fondest memories have been visiting my grandfather and finding stacks and stacks of various newspapers, magazines, leaflets laying on his coffee table. From The Oregonian, to the Economist and The Jerusalem Report, it was always fun to flip through the pages and see where my grandfather was getting all his indispensable knowledge from. My mother, also, after living in the States for over ten years and getting all her news from tv news stations and the internet suddenly decided she had to have a subscription to the New York Times weekend edition. Now she sits, every morning with the paper in one hand and coffee in the other. I think it is this tangible aspect mentioned before that really drew her into it. On a personal level, I have not made a full transition to the internet. Yes, my homepage is Ynet and I have a bookmark folder solely for online news, however I have my favorite magazine shipped to me all the way from San Francisco and one of my best birthday presents this year was a subscription to the Herald Tribune and Ha'aretz. I believe that people choose their medium of choice, whether that be television, internet, books, movies, or newspapers. For example, I have been living without a television for over a year. Life is very easy without tv and I have made a conscious effort to read books that have been on my 'to-d0' list for years. I made this choice to choose books over tv, even though books may be seen as 'dated'. Similarly with internet, one may use it for various purposes but there is definitely this possible choice of exposing oneself to tangible papers rather than online news. Even with the massive switch to the internet, I think we would be surprised at how many people still rely on the daily paper.