Decline of Printed Newspapers

Even though this blog has focused most on CNN, it’s impossible to talk about news media and new communication technology without acknowledging the current decline in print journalism. Most newspaper companies are being forced to either stop their printing presses forever or find alternative ways to reach their audiences. Most papers, like the New York Times, have adapted to the new trend in journalism and put their papers online. By using the internet for journalism, newspapers are able to reach a wider audience and update stories faster. Most online newspapers still require that users buy a subscription so they can make a profit.

Even with adapting to modern technology to appease readers, newspapers still face fierce competition. Online newspapers must compete with websites such as Google and Yahoo! that provide news headlines and stories free of charge. According to Straubhaar, LaRose, and Davenport in the book, Media Now, search engines are not only providing the news headlines, but also include links to only newspapers for the full stories. This gives the search engines an increase in web site traffic that leads to more advertisers.

Online newspapers also face competition from television news networks like CNN who have websites that keep viewers up-to-date on the day’s top stories and provide the service at no charge to web site visitors.
To compete with this, newspapers pride themselves in being more in-depth in their coverage. Some newspapers provide stories on their websites but promote more thorough and comprehensive stories in the actual printed newspaper. Most online newspapers must depend on their reputation to attract readers. The more readers, the more subscriptions for the newspaper and the more advertisers will want to pay for ads on the website.

Personally, I think there is not much hope for newspapers. I know that I personally get my news from either television or from a cable news website. I don’t think I could justify paying for a subscription to a newspaper, even an online paper, unless it was a special niche market such as the Wall Street Journal for business purposes. I think that as the internet grows and more people begin to depend on technology for every aspect of daily life, printed newspapers will become obsolete. It’s a sad reality, but the way things are going now I think it is inevitable.

I found this funny video from The Onion, which is a fictional and satirical online publication. It’s a comical take on the decline of printed newspapers:

New Media NEWS

Tonight I visited the CNN.com homepage to see if there was anything new for the blog. One headline really stuck out to me right on the front page. It was an article about the oldest Twitter user passing away. Her name was Ivy Bean. She lived in Northern England and tweeted almost every day about everything in her life. Her thoughtful tweets attracted over 57,000 followers on Twitter. She also had a Facebook, but she maxed out her friend capacity with 25,000 pending friend requests.
I think elderly people using new technology is fantastic. I’m always impressed when I see how far spread technology is and when I see unexpected internet users making use of new media. Ivy was a great example of this and had a great outlook on social media. According to CNN, Bean liked the internet because of its usefulness in connecting with other people. New media can be a great tool for the elderly with many social networking websites geared at reconnecting old friends and family. The best thing about the internet, in my opinion, is that it is so vast that there is literally something for everyone. It’s all about niches and finding what interests you and sharing that with people across the world.

The article was very interesting, though sad to report the loss of such a friendly and intelligent woman, but it brought to mind another point. I realized that news media companies such as CNN not only need to utilize new media for their own personal use, but they must also report on it. It’s the responsibility of the news to be a watchdog and to keep the community informed of the on goings in today’s society. New media is certainly an important aspect of this.
I was curious what other new media CNN had been reporting on. I found a few different ways that CNN reports on new media. For one, there is a Tech section of the website that contains news stories on all of the newest tech products. The most popular stories now include news about the new iPhone 4, reports on Kindle sales, and of course, Ivy’s story.

Among the article on Ivy Bean, there is a link to related topics including Twitter, Inc., which allows users to search through all CNN articles relating to Twitter. There’s also a link that says the article was filed under “Social Media”. Upon clicking this link, site visitors can find every article that relates to social media on CNN.com. There’s also an option to follow the topic so readers can stay up to date on social media news if it interests them.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/07/28/obit.ivy.bean/index.html?hpt=Sbin#fbid=p5WW54XQ-nd


Here’s a link to Ivy’s Twitter if anyone is interested. It really is fun to read. She will be missed.
http://twitter.com/ivybean104

iPhone App

Today at work I noticed a commercial for CNN and the iPhone. Apparently, there's a CNN application for the iPhone that provides live streaming video with the day's most up-to-date news stories, weather, and traffic. There's also an option to submit to iReport, CNN's breakthrough citizen journalism program that allows users to upload their own video, photos, and news stories. CNN boasts the app is the best way to, "Get the power of CNN in your hands."

http://www.cnn.com/mobile/iphone/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSTLzL_ibXc

Facebook and CNN

Almost everyone in the US today has a Facebook account. In fact, Facebook boasts over 500 million active users worldwide. According to Facebook, people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook. With the great reach Facebook has, it’s no wonder news media is using the social networking site as a tool to expand their online services.
One thing I’ve noticed recently on the CNN website is a Facebook “social plug in.” This allows a website visitor to connect his or her online news activity with Facebook. Users can “share” an article with friends, so they will be notified about what articles the user finds particularly interesting or are currently reading. CNN explains the plug in, “Using Facebook, you can now see what your friends are recommending and sharing on CNN.” CNN visitors are automatically logged in through their Facebook account even if they don’t have an account on CNN.com.
The plug in is easy to use. At the bottom of each news article, there’s an option to “Recommend”, accompanied with the familiar Facebook thumbs up and logo. It also reports how many people have recommended that particular article so far.
CNN also has its own Facebook page and encourages site visitors to “Like” the CNN Facebook page. The Facebook page shares short updates with the day’s top news stories and links to the full articles on the CNN website. Through this Facebook page, Facebook users can comment or “Like” certain news topics. The Facebook Page has almost a million fans. It also has links to other CNN Facebook pages including those to CNN anchors such as Ali Velshi and Rick Sanchez, and CNN programs like BackStory, Anderson Cooper 360, and State of the Union.
Along with ways to link news articles with Facebook, CNN.com provides options to share stories using other social networking and community or video sharing websites including Mixx, Twitter, Digg, delicious, reddit, MySpace, Stumble Upon, Linked In, and Viadeo. By providing users with options to link news articles with all of these websites, CNN is opening their website up to new media ideas and expanding their website to new users who ordinarily may not have visited the website on their own but if a friend recommended a certain article, they may choose to click it and visit.
I think the Facebook plug in is a great idea. It’s innovative and makes the news more personal because it brings a social aspect to each story and allows friends to share stories they find interesting.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my first blog!
This blog will focus on how new communication technology is being used in news media and how it affects daily life. I am currently interning at CNN so I will observe new media practices there as well as in other news outlets. I look forward to posting interesting and entertaining stories about the new technologies and then offering my opinion on how they will affect society. Please enjoy the posts and feel free to comment!

Thanks,

Brooke