There is a surge of information available to us at every angle of our day-to-day lives. Television, Radio and now Internet are great for any sort of news you may need. With the rise of blogs, interactive news sites and video streams there is no need for Newspapers. The idea of timeliness in regards to the Internet vs. the newspaper is un-comparable. To get the latest information on sports you can click on ESPN’s web page, for the most updated information on stocks or weather simply go to your homepage on Yahoo!
The traditional newspaper doesn’t have the upper hand when it comes to immediacy to deliver information to its audience. But it is believed to be more reliable when it comes to what is published. Not just anyone can write up an article for the local newspaper and be published as a credible journalist. On the Internet it is easy to find information on whatever you like, but there isn’t a guarantee that it will be accurate information.
If you look at newspapers that are known to be credible they got that way by being around for years. People have built a relationship with their favorite newspapers and count on the objectivity and ability to relay the news to them. When comparing newspapers to websites like wikipedia it is hard to compare credibility because on wikipedia anyone can add information about any subject they claim to know well.
These same newspapers that are seen as credible are suffering in sales and are therefore forced to start Internet news sources such as The New York Times. This doesn’t mean that our society is suffering from the decline of the newspaper. If anything our society is growing in knowledge. The problem with a newspaper is if there isn’t a story in it that interests you then there is no reason to buy it. When you are on the Internet you can search for whatever interests you. As long as readers are aware that everything they read is not necessarily credible or true and they back check information they will be more informed then previously by newspapers.
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