Ht-Richard Sambrook
The decline of newspapers is not about the replacement of the antiquated technology of news print with the lightning speed of the Internet. It does not signal an inevitable and salutary change. It is not a form of progress. The decline of newspapers is about the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic and public responsibility on the part of much of our entrepreneurial class and the intellectual poverty of our post-literate world, a world where information is conveyed primarily through rapidly moving images rather than print.
Strong words indeed and for Chris the Web cannot replace either the revenues that the newspaper product brings in or more importantly their status in society
Newspapers, when well run, are a public trust. They provide, at their best, the means for citizens to examine themselves, to ferret out lies and the abuse of power by elected officials and corrupt businesses, to give a voice to those who would, without the press, have no voice, and to follow, in ways a private citizen cannot, the daily workings of local, state and federal government.
Now there are many that would argue that Web 2.0 forfills this role in a much better way allowing instant publication of a 4th estate investigation.
For Chris though
We live under the happy illusion that we can transfer news-gathering to the Internet
Furthermore
Reporting, which is time-consuming and often expensive, begins from the premise that there are things we need to know and understand, even if these things make us uncomfortable. If we lose this ethic we are left with pandering, packaging and partisanship
Arguments that are often not heard in this new media environment that we inhibit.
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